Heritage
by Ljiljana
Summary: No matter how open your mind is, if someone tells you they're being haunted your first reaction will be to think they are crazy. AU, yaoi
1. Chapter 1

**Notes**: This is _not_ yet another one of my WiPs, this story is already completed. It has about 22000 words, so I decided to split it in four parts and post it like that, one part a week. Hope you'll like it and if you do – tell me all about it. XD

Special thanks to youji_yola for all the help! 3

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**Heritage**

Part 1

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**Warmer Than** **Summer**

_And 'mid this tumult Kubla heard from far_

_Ancestral voices prophesying war!_

'Kubla Khan' (1798)

I smiled into the empty wall, the only thing available to look at through the window of my room, as the door of the apartment closed with a bang. Kakashi was home. What's more, he was happy.

I knew this as I knew myself. We've been living together for longer than I can remember, ever since my parents died. I had grandparents when that happened, as well as a godfather. Kakashi insisted on being the one to take me in, as a thank you to my father for everything he did for him. It took me years to understand the glint Kakashi had in his eyes whenever he would look at the picture on my bedpost, and only after he finally fell in love with somebody else.

I knew he was happy about something that day because he'd never let the door bang otherwise. He'd usually be very stealthy walking around, suddenly appearing as you shit your pants. So I kept smiling when he knocked shortly and walked into my room.

"Pack your bags." It was all the greeting that I got.

"Why? We're going somewhere?"

Kakashi said nothing and dropped a large sports bag he must have picked up in our storage room in the basement. I watched as he tried to bring back months of life into the wrinkled polyester for a couple of seconds, but hey, patience has never been one of my virtues.

"Jiraiya's?" I asked. That's my godfather, the one and only guilty party for my stupid name. I was curious but I didn't really think Kakashi would dump me there for the last summer before college. He's way too soft-hearted to send me living amongst Jiraiya's naked women calendars and forgotten bras. "Hawaii? _Kalkuta_?"

"Hmm." Kakashi wasn't avoiding my eyes any longer. 'I thought, it must be important, as my tongue glued to my palate.' "Do you remember that conversation about finding a bigger apartment?"

I froze. Of course I remembered that conversation; it was only yesterday when we had it. '_Finding a bigger apartment_' actually meant '_me moving in with Obito, in a place with a spare bedroom where you can crash during the holidays_.' Technically, I didn't mind. Kakashi deserved not to travel across the city to occasionally get laid and, besides, I liked Obito. He was fun. But these were my last months before I went away. I didn't want them to be shadowed by Kakashi's first months of living with Obito.

"I thought you two agreed to wait until fall." I said, aware that my cheeks are flushing in anger. I didn't like it when people I cared about ignored me and my opinion on an important matter like that.

But Kakashi's eyes were steady on mine. "We'll wait. But that doesn't mean we can't have a vacation together, ne? It would be a good tryout."

My shoulders slightly relaxed. I pointed out: "We had a vacation with him last year."

And those two weeks in a four star hotel on the shore were fun! I lost my virginity then, and I'm pretty sure Kakashi knew that. He didn't find out from me, though, not unless you really can see a change on someone the day after.

"This one will be for the entire summer. It's a good opportunity to meet his family."

The look Kakashi was giving me became cautious then, as would always when Obito's nephews popped into the conversation for some reason. It's like he expected me not to like them, even though he'd never met them either. I knew we might not hit it off right away, I'm always a little awkward around rich people, but it's not like I'd forget Obito's praises or how happy he was when he got to see his only family. Besides, I promised Kakashi that I would behave when the day comes. I wished he would trust me more.

"Ah." I said. Summer away from this suffocating building block sounded like heaven, even with the prospect of dealing with two spoiled rich boys. "So where are we going?"

Kakashi cocked his head. "I'm not sure. They have a house somewhere in the country."

I laughed at him. I knew that look. It meant he had been too busy trying to grope poor Obito to actually listen. Kakashi's face remained completely serious, even though a loud and hearty laugh like mine must be contagious.

"Fine, fine." I started packing once the laughter dried. "Just please tell me I will get a soundproof room. Or at least earplugs."

_Then_ he smiled, because Kakashi, my substitute father, is the biggest pervert in the world. Even bigger than my godfather. The plea was a reference to an uncomfortable first night the two of them had spent in the same room on our last vacation. Suffice to say, I ran out in the middle of the night before even taking time to dress properly. God, but the two of them can be loud.

Nothing similar ever happened before or after that night. I really think they were sure I wouldn't be able to hear them. Still, I am scarred for life.

"How about you get a house wing of your own?"

I looked up from where I was making sure to take along my good socks to see if he's kidding. But then I remembered Obito's expensive clothes and unreachable concert tickets (meant to make me like him - which was completely unnecessary – not that Obito has to ever find out) and I knew he wasn't.

I shrugged. "As long as I don't have to clean it for food or something."

***

"And here we are!" Obito turned his head to give me a huge grin. I couldn't help but grin right back before stretching my neck to see a bit better.

It was a good thing we had followed Obito's advice and took a bus to go here. Our little city Opel would have never managed to make it through the old, eaten up road, not even on places near the village where the cobblestones were still mostly in their places. The village our bus deposited us in was charming, but really, really small. We collected quite a few curious stares while waiting for Obito to pick us up.

At the other side of the small bridge, I could see the house. It's somewhat a relief that the house had no wings, but the dark gray-brown walls and the style indicated its age. As we conquered more of the bumpy, narrow road, I saw the shutters on the windows. They were blue, like on some old painting.

It was big enough to host five people, I realized, even if we don't all immediately get along. Kakashi had nothing to worry about, anyway, because I was going to behave. I was going to make sure not to leave him lonely when I go to college.

The little grass free clearing intended as a parking lot was good two hundred meters away from the path that led to the front door. The house was on a hill, but the climb was fairly mild. I enjoyed my muscles working after so many hours of having to keep my legs in an awkward position in the crowded bus.

When I turned around, the view over the fields that were slowly descending on the other side of the hill was stunning. There was a small forest on the other side of the river that could be seen much clearer from the top of the hill, and the sky was blue and huge, with white fluffy clouds almost within hand's reach.

"It's nice." I said to Obito as we walked through the small fence. He raised his eyebrows, as if to say 'that is much more than 'nice.'' Maybe it was, but I couldn't as well say, 'oh _how utterly and completely gorgeous!!!_' I'm not a girl.

There was someone sitting in front of the house, just under the blue shutters of the nearest window, in the shadow of a tree. I could see only the tip of his dark haired head, because the rest of it was hidden behind the garden table and the lid of a really expensive looking laptop.

He looked over to us only when we were already practically in front of him. I don't think I liked him much. His eyes seemed dead, he was that serious. He didn't offer his hand, only a single nod for the three of us to share. Kakashi, who was close on my right, was standing with his arms crossed. He didn't like this person either. But Obito lightly rolled his eyes and flopped himself into one of the free chairs. Next to each other like that, they looked more as if they were brothers than uncle and nephew.

"This is my older nephew, Itachi. Don't mind him when he's working, it's hopeless. He's the world's greatest workaholic." I expected Obito's nephew, Itachi, to glare or say something cold and insulting, but he paid no attention to his uncle. What was on his screen was much more interesting, I'm guessing. As we took the last two chairs at the table, Obito added: "Itachi, this is Kakashi, and Naruto."

Itachi glanced up at Obito and then at the two of us. "It is nice meeting you finally. Maybe now my ears will get some rest."

I'm not sure if I was amused or annoyed, there was such an odd mixture of politeness and disrespect in those words. Obito laughed, not embarrassed in the slightest, and asked: "Where is Sasuke?"

"He wandered off." Itachi answered, with his eyes already back on the screen. "It is his latest childish attempt to show you how he doesn't like that you're getting married."

On that, Obito huffed. "I'm not getting married. I'm just moving in with someone."

Itachi didn't answer. Obito glared at the edge of the table, I've no idea if it's because of what Itachi said or because Sasuke wasn't there to greet us. Kakashi was very still on my side, which was never a good sign; he was probably itching to reach for Obito. I stood up from the chair between them without even considering it. Why didn't they just take places next to each other, not next to me?

"So, is this all your land?" I asked, unable to decide if I'm talking to Itachi or Obito. "Or will some angry villagers yell at me if I go for a walk?"

Itachi answered, even though I settled my questioning gaze at Obito towards the end of the sentence. "The villagers are working on the land, but it belongs to us. As long as you don't stomp on cultivation, or in any other way ruin their work, there will be no problems."

I frowned as I turned from them and started walking. I felt thoroughly lectured, like after a long detention with my high school biology teacher, even though Itachi's words had nothing but the information I asked for in them. He was weird.

But with the warm sun on my face and soft soil accommodating to my steps, it was hard to stay upset. I hummed under my breath as I stepped carefully over everything that looked like it might be there because somebody planted it. It was so different from my apartment block and school almost hidden among the boulevards and buildings.

Air smelled nice, fresh. Fields were mostly full of low green grass-like things and many, many tree lines of plums. After a while, the sun became too warm on the top of my head, making me a little dizzy. Plums were too short to help, so I changed the direction and walked toward the stream that we had passed on our way to the house earlier. It was surrounded by tall willows – or at least, I think there were willows. It's not the same seeing them in a book and with your own eyes.

Only after hiding from the sun in the thick shades of the trees did I realized just how much it was bothering me. My eyes were teary and cheeks hot. The water was loud in the stream, running fast down the hill. I leaned to see better, because the riverbanks were higher than such a small string of water seems capable of making. I grinned at the small fish, easy to see even from my upper ground.

I followed the flow for a bit. Soon, the stream's descent ended, becoming a little wider and slower. I was hungry. Before I could turn to go back, though, my eye caught something.

There was a tree trunk over the water, like an emergency bridge, and someone was sitting on the edge of it. I stepped closer, thinking that it must be Sasuke, Obito's other nephew. His hair was impossibly black, just like everyone else's in the family.

I wanted to call to him but it somehow seemed inappropriate in the deep shades, because they felt like enclosed space. I went closer instead and when I was almost behind him, he finally turned his head a little, to show that he had heard something.

"Hi!" I said, with a bright smile in its place. I had promised I'd behave.

He turned completely; the look on his face was a well familiar one. Kakashi would never convince me that he's never met this guy before, because the look he gave me was the same one Kakashi always gave me when he felt I was being particularly stupid. It had just the right ratio of annoyed and exasperated - only Kakashi didn't have eyes like these.

Sasuke –I was then completely sure it's him because the resemblance with Itachi was too great – didn't answer. I sighed heavily. Well, it's not like I didn't know that dealing with rich people wouldn't be easy. They have too many quirks.

"I'm Naruto." I tried again. "I'm here with Kakashi."

He turned to look at me again, but it felt like a glare. "Because it wasn't enough that Obito brought a total stranger to our home, he also had to bring the stranger's stray dog."

I took both an entire second with that sentence and a deep breath. Neither worked, so I crossed the last couple of steps that were left between us and then Sasuke was on the ground from a solid blow I managed to land on his jaw. My satisfaction was violent but not long. In his place, I would've tripped me. Instead, Sasuke kicked the side of my knee with a breaking force, using his heel. If I hadn't managed to move and avoid some of the blow, I could've been left limping for the rest of my life.

Sasuke was already up on his feet. I couldn't fight with knee hurt like that, my balance would be off. Sasuke didn't care much so he dealt a hit that caught my chin. I blocked the next one, but I knew it wouldn't be enough. My only chance was to keep him on the ground.

I pushed hard forward, first to just keep the space between us minimal so he wouldn't be able to swing at me, and then some more to tip him backwards. He was very stable; it wouldn't have worked if I wasn't heavier.

Sasuke fell backwards, letting go of me to ease his fall with his hands, but it was too late. I was falling myself, holding my grip on his shirt. He reacted faster than I could think, gathering his legs to accumulate my weight and bounce me over his head.

Even as I landed on my back, I still held on his shirt. The material was so strong, it barely started to rip, so Sasuke had to turn to where I was slipping rapidly down the riverbank. There was no time for him to try to get out of it before I was lying on my hip in the water, where I dragged Sasuke with me.

He was lucky enough not to get too wet, but I was lucky enough not to be covered in mud head to toe. I let go of his shirt and turned to lay on my back in the stream. The flow massaging the top of my head felt nice and refreshing after the first shock, but I had to keep my head up a little bit.

Sasuke sat up and started cleaning his shoulder and elbow, the places with the most mud. I snickered at the sight. He would have been kind of adorable with his smeared cheek and wet shoes if he wasn't the world's biggest ass.

He snapped. "What are you laughing about?"

"There's a large bruise forming on your jaw." I said. "That's funny enough."

Sasuke leaned quickly, and pushed me until I was flat on my back. Startled, I managed to take half a breath before water washed over my face, but he let go right away anyway and continued cleaning himself up while I sat up and glared. Great, at least he wasn't out to kill me.

Smug and keeping his eyes on his attempts to clean himself, Sasuke said: "You won't be able to walk for a week."

I had to clench my teeth so I wouldn't show how much my knee hurt – even though he obviously knew that - but I stood up without flinching. My clothes were drenched. There was nothing I could do about the jeans right then but I took my shirt off to squeeze the water out. Sasuke was watching me suspiciously from the ground, like I would try to kick him or something. Just because of that, I squeezed my shirt over his head.

It was an unsuccessful tactic. He just used the thin spray to clear some more mud off him. It was annoying, but at least his cheek was still muddy.

While I was putting my wet shirt back on, Sasuke climbed the slippery riverbank.

"Come on. We'll miss lunch."

I followed, distrustfully muttering. "How considerate…"

Sasuke, even though a good couple of steps in front of me, heard me. He half-turned, just enough to show me a smirk – one of those that make a stomach quiver in the way that I really didn't want to associate with Obito's bastardly nephew . "I just want to watch you limp uphill."

Well, of course.

But, despite of the words, Sasuke walked next to me once we found a path back, not behind. It suggested more that he was there to help me if I needed some help (which I didn't, of course), than to laugh. I guess the short fight helped him get rid of some of the displeasure with his uncle. I didn't say anything about it. If I was mistaken about his reasons for walking next to me, I didn't want to know about it.

***

Kakashi was giving me one of his sterner looks, so I kept my head low over my plate. I could see the rest of them only from the corner of my eyes. As much as the sight of a worried Obito made me feel guilty, a red shiny bruise that was forming rapidly on Sasuke's jaw was making me want to grin. He well deserved it.

Itachi was very apathetic towards everything. When he saw me walking in the kitchen after I changed my clothes in a bathroom, where the three of them were already eating, the only comment he made, after narrowing his eyes on Sasuke's face for a moment, was: "I thought you were right-handed, Naruto." If at that point Kakashi wasn't giving me the look already, I'd have told him that when it comes to fighting, I'm ambidextrous.

Poor Obito was trying to talk for five people and, not surprisingly, he was doing a good job out of it. Usually, I'd help him. But my knee was starting to hurt like a bitch, even more than my back. All I'd be in the mood to say would include a loud laugh and a finger pointed to Sasuke's face anyway. At least my war wounds were hidden.

Eventually, Kakashi showed some mercy for his lover.

"This house seems really old." He said, picking up, of course, the most boring subject possible. "Has it been with your family for a long time?"

Itachi, once away from his precious computer, was not a bad host. He answered: "This is the family's original property. Our grandfather was born here. He moved into the city later in life, but he kept the land here. It has been renovated since, of course."

Yeah, the bathroom I used to change my clothes was definitely newer. I couldn't see the kitchen from where I was sitting, but it was probably modernized. At least I hoped. How did old kitchens function at any rate?

"Ah. So now you use it as a summer house." Kakashi prompted further.

There was a quick three way glance exchanged over the table. A suspiciously laden glance. There was a story there and I made a note to myself to ask Obito about it.

"Yes, but we haven't been coming for a while."

Itachi's tone grew cold. Kakashi left it at that.

After lunch, Obito showed us the rest of the house. The ground floor was just the dining room and the kitchen, a rather huge 'family room', where there was a TV set that must have been expensive on one side and a fireplace on the other, and an extra room to accommodate guests' attached to the bathroom I used. It was where Obito and Kakashi were going to sleep.

My cheerfulness for staying on a completely different floor than the two of them didn't last long. After Obito pointed a double door at the top of the stairs, where Itachi's room was, he led me to a small side hallway with three doors. One was door of my room, one was Sasuke's and the first one from the stairs was of the bathroom that we were to share. If our relationship didn't make a very sharp turn soon, that arrangement could turn out to be a really bad idea.

I couldn't complain much, in any case. I promised I'd behave.

In order to keep that promise, I did the thing that I hated to do the most. I avoided Sasuke completely for the next several days. Or I tried, because the house wasn't that big and he seemed to be using the bathroom every time I needed it, day or night. In fact, one of our more violent, er, encounters, happened there, not a full week after we arrived.

I wanted to take a shower in the old-fashioned bathtub that, thankfully, had protective curtains around it. I had to listen for a couple of minutes, to make sure it was free. I'd learned on the first day that the bathroom had no lock and that Sasuke doesn't yell when someone barges in, he throws things. Nothing makes you careful like a big, painful, soap-induced bump on your head.

It was free so I walked in and started to take my clothes off. I don't know if it was fortunate or calculated, but thank God that I only managed to take my shirt off when the door opened, and Sasuke walked inside.

"Yo, dickhead." I said when he ignored me completely to search for something through his fancy blue toiletry bag. "Busy here, are you blind?"

The unfortunate fellow was obviously blind and deaf, but I gave him several seconds to answer me anyway. My patience hadn't paid off.

"Sasuke." I tried after he dug into the little bag for the third time. What could be he looking for, anyway? "I'm taking a shower. Get out!"

"In a minute." He finally answered, impatiently. It almost convinced me that he really needed something and wasn't there just to annoy me. Almost. "I've no wish to be here when you take off your hand-me-downs."

I was already angry - really, with him, it never took long. But why the hell did he have to insult me with every fucking word? And what was that about not wanting to see me without my clothes?

He really was smaller than me, I noticed, but not as much as it seemed at the first sight. It was mostly in the way he was keeping his shoulders slouched; it made him look thinner and younger.

I snorted. "Because you're jealous of my good looks?"

Sasuke put back his toiletry bag on the edge of the sink and gave me narrow-eyed, mocking once over. "Right."

And that was the most annoying part. He didn't even have to use insulting words to insult me anymore. My thin tolerance expired.

I grabbed him at his elbow and pushed him toward the door, to throw him physically out. Sasuke easily got out of my grip by jerking his arm through my fingers – a trick I was not all that surprised he knew – and jammed that same elbow to my side. It hurt, and I was in an awkward position to punch him properly so, instead, I pushed him back, hard, into the sink. I saw a flicker of pain as he hit his hip. I didn't care much, he hurt me first, so I moved closer to the sink myself, with every intention of blocking his already moving hands and pin him so he wouldn't get a chance to use them.

An odd thing happened then. My hands were supposed to block his arms, I'm sure that was the message I sent them to do. Instead, I found myself grasping on Sasuke's shoulders, as if to keep him grounded. Worse even, he stopped moving the same moment my palms connected.

As he narrowed his eyes at me again, not moving away and holding my gaze, I realized I had to let go. We were too close. I was growing hard, from the fight and close proximity, and I had no shirt to cover for it, just my old jeans. A little jolt of dread – no one enjoys being laughed at - was what finally made me break the eye contact and let go of him. Sasuke got out without any further encouragement.

That evening, when I leaned over to grab the remote with a small groan of pain, Kakashi whispered, but not low enough for people to miss it if they paid attention. "You know what would help you two get along better?" Some dramatically pausing later, he answered his own question. "A nice bottle of some scented lube."

I stared at him in horror, admittedly more at the fact that he, my surrogate father, was the one who said that, than at the suggestion itself, but still. He didn't have to say it so loudly where others could hear him, I doubt me going defensive would help the situation. Not to mention, everyone in the house knowing about my attraction would be very embarrassing.

***

A couple of days later, walking back from the small town where I went for my own amusement but mostly to get out of the house, I found a kitten. It was very cute, not too young and with its yellow fur. It seemed lost, so far away from the town, so I took it and brought it back with me.

I found an old plate in the kitchen and gave it milk. Later, I took it to my room. It curled with me through my afternoon nap, and it woke me up mewing at the door. It was obviously someone's cat, already housebroken. I got up, and then a brilliant thought made me snicker evilly to myself.

I took the cat into my hands and went to the nearest widow to check out the situation. In front of the house, Kakashi and Obito were playing a card game at the table, and Itachi was staring at his laptop. I had to lean a bit to check, but as I expected, Sasuke was deeper in the shadow of the house, reading yet another book.

Satisfied, I sneaked to the door of his room and opened them quietly just enough to push the cat through. I sat on the stairs and waited until I was sure that poor thing had relieved itself.

When I went back for it, it was comfortably lying at the top of Sasuke's neatly set bed. I didn't dare to stay long enough to make sure it worked, so I took the cat back to my room. I had to go back to the town tomorrow and find the owner.

If the cat shit in his room, Sasuke didn't notice. Or he wasn't bitching about it, which was as good as a written confirmation that he didn't notice. I was disappointed but, well, I didn't wish for him to step into cat shit enough for that failure to make me exactly unhappy.

The next day, Sasuke got out of his room unusually late, looking like hell. As he sat across from me at the table, I could hear him breathing though his mouth, as if his nose was stuffed. His eyes were bloodshot and teary.

"Do you have to eat with us at the table?" I complained, eying him carefully. "You'll give us all the flu."

"It's not flu." Sasuke said and then frowned at the slurry, wet quality of his voice.

Obito explained in his place. "It's allergies. There must be some hair an animal shed close to something he uses."

I could feel my face heat up in embarrassment. Damn it, why do I do the stupidest things?

"He's allergic to animal hair?" Kakashi inquired. "Does he have medication of some sort for it?"

"Nasal inhaler to help him breathe should be enough." Itachi explained as Sasuke glared moodily into his still empty plate. "It's not very dangerous if he's not exposed for long."

"I have allergies, too." Obito added. "They are less intense, though."

I kept my head very low and kept quiet during the breakfast. Sasuke couldn't read that day, because his eyes were too affected for that, so he was mostly lying down on the couch in the family room, in front of the TV. He wasn't really watching anything, but he wasn't sleeping, either.

I let the cat go out of one of the back windows, but I could struggle with my guilt only for several hours. I couldn't let him go back to bed where that kitten was sleeping; it probably left hair all over his blanket. So when there was no one else around, because it was hard enough to go to Sasuke with the confession as it was, I hopped on the armchair that was close to him.

"So." I started conversationally. "You're allergic to animal hair."

Sasuke inhaled through his nose violently, which only resulted in making a whistling sound. There was no answer, and no other reaction.

"Animals, like cats?" I asked again. There might have been something in my voice, guilt I was feeling maybe, because he snapped his head in my direction. I swallowed a bit and added. "Right?"

Sasuke set up in the couch. "I knew this is your fault. What did you do?"

Anger flickered in me, but I suppressed it. He was right, it was my fault. Not that trying to calm myself down wasn't also helpful with banishing from my brain things that I _wanted_ to do to him. No one should be allowed to look that good with eyes red and swollen.

"It was just a kitten." I said quietly. "I didn't know you were allergic."

"It's not a thing people generally tattoo on their foreheads." Sasuke griped out, the effect ruined with the slurring, nasal tinge he couldn't suppress in his voice. "What did you do?!"

"Uh. I let it into your room for a bit."

"For a bit? Why would you…?" Sasuke started, but then he understood. Instead of glaring I expected his eyes grew cold. "Never mind. I have to scrub the entire room anyway."

He got up on his feet. Quite inappropriately, a traitorous part of me enjoyed the close look at his ass. But he was really angry, so I looked up quickly.

"Look, I'll do that." I offered. "I'll clean your room. Okay?"

Sasuke, already at the door, turned his very cold bloodshot eyes at me. "_You_," He said more clearly than anything else that day. "Stay the fuck away from my room and my things."

I sighed and slumped back in the armchair. I was upset, but I had no right to be angry at him. It was my fault he was as good as sick today. With the sounds of vacuum cleaner upstairs, I glared sullenly at the doorway Sasuke disappeared through for a long time.


	2. Chapter 2

Part 2

**Before You Burn**

_I know that's a secret, for it's whispered every where._

'Love for Love' William Congreve

The next morning, Sasuke was already up when I got downstairs, and he looked three times as bad as he did the previous day. I expected a poisonous glare because he was feeding them to me the entire previous evening, but Sasuke didn't even glance at the door when I came in. I was almost insulted at first but after several minutes of observation, I realized he was treating everyone the same; like he wasn't even in the room with us.

He wasn't talking much, and you'd have to prompt him several times if you wanted him to hear you, which was creepily unusual. Granted I didn't know him very well, but that kind of behavior just didn't feel right on him. It was almost normal when he would talk. His nose wasn't stuffed any more, but his eyes were even worse than before, swollen and red.

Obito kept asking questions, but Sasuke wouldn't say anything except that he couldn't sleep at night. He ended up sleeping in the family room later and was in a much better mood after that but still. It didn't make _me_ feel any better. I had to learn to think before doing stupid things, I really had to.

*

I heard the door open and close that night. Sasuke was quiet, careful, but I couldn't sleep, so I heard him. The door of the bathroom stayed silent. The steps disappeared down the stairs. It was a good idea, I remember thinking, for him to go and watch television if he couldn't sleep.

I followed after several minutes, watched him flip channels through the open door, but I went back to bed after while. I fell asleep some time after that so I have no idea when Sasuke went to bed.

*

Itachi was worried. He kept staring at Sasuke silently, a frown on his face. No wonder he was, too. You don't watch a member of your family stop eating completely and look over their shoulder all the time without getting worried. For days, Sasuke behaved oddly. No one could get a straight answer out of him; no one knew why he wasn't sleeping at night.

I developed a habit of waking up at every sound at night. I guess I was worried myself.

On the third day, as I was watching him carefully while he was flipping through channels, Sasuke snapped at me. "Stop looking at me like that! It's not the fucking cat!"

I knew that. Obito told me when I asked about it that Sasuke's allergies were just manifesting on his sinuses. Bloodshot eyes were just a side effect. As he could breathe normally now, that wasn't it. Still, I felt responsible.

"Then what is it?" Sasuke glared, and shook his head jerkily, once. "Okay, fine. You won't talk to me, I get it. You better talk to _someone_, though. We're all going crazy in the house because of you."

Harsh, sudden laughter made me look at him sharply. It had a tiny lilt of hysteria in it, the way he snorted and then continued in crisp barks. I know the guy hadn't had a lot of experience laughing and all, but that attempt freaked me out.

"Oh, _you're_ going crazy. That's a good one."

I opened my mouth when he cut off the laughter, probably realizing how he sounded, but snapped them shut again. What was I going to say anyway? He acted crazy. He was talking like he was crazy.

He _reacted_ on the word 'crazy'.

I left him to change channels and went to tell Kakashi about what happened. Kakashi promised me they'd take care of it.

*

The plan for taking care of it, I later realized, consisted of cornering Sasuke until he talked. I mean it almost literally, too. They would start first thing in the morning, at breakfast. Itachi would bark out random shit about family honor and honesty, though that subdued after a while, leaving him just worried. Obito was pleading and snapping in turns and Kakashi was mostly kicking me under the table not to interrupt, pretending to read a book. They failed miserably every time they attempted that tactic because Sasuke would just watch them like a dead brained zombie for a while, then walk out.

I itched to follow him. I didn't want to ask questions, I wasn't upset, not _at_ him. All I wanted was to sit someplace where he would be in my sight, so I could be sure he was alright. In a way, that was what I've been doing, almost unconsciously, for the past week or so. I'd seek Sasuke out and find a way to entertain myself nearby.

Not that he was any less of a bastard, but that was okay. That was kind of what I liked about him anyway. If anything, at that point, I wished he would dive out of whatever place he went to inside his head long enough to bitch at me more.

In the beginning, he sometimes slept if someone else was in room with him. He would fall asleep like a small child while sitting at the table or on the floor under the window, where he usually read whenever the weather was bad. I had tried to cover him with a blanket once, but that ended badly. He jerked as soon as the cloth made contact, widened his eyes up at the ceiling and after several moment, snapped at me not to go anywhere near him.

I gave up on covering and trying to come closer, but not on watching him. It's a good thing he didn't complain about that because that was one battle I was absolutely sure he wouldn't win.

About two weeks after I let the kitten in Sasuke's house, I woke up from the noise of Sasuke' door opening and closing, just like I made a habit of doing almost every night. I listened carefully, wondering if I should follow him downstairs again. He would just sit there on the couch anyway, changing channels without even paying attention to what was on them. But I wanted to – no, I _needed_ to check on him if I wanted to catch any sleep that night myself.

I moved the blanket off me. Nights in the old house on a hill were always chilly at night; no matter how warm was it outside. As I heard the sound of my feet meeting he hard wooden floor, I realized that I didn't hear anyone walking down the hall, just Sasuke's door. What was he doing, standing in the hall?

Not bothering with the slippers, I walked to the door and peeked outside. The hallway was darker than my room, the light in front of the house unable to reach it, so it took me a moment or two to recognize Itachi.

He was standing there, leaning with one arm on the wall two-three feet to the right from Sasuke's door. His shoulders were slouched, making him look a lot like his brother when he was tense, though I could tell them apart always. If he had heard me open the door, he didn't show it in any way.

Finally, after watching Itachi do nothing but breathe quietly in the empty hall, I walked out of my room and closer to him. "Itachi? Is there something wrong?"

For all his not reacting at my presence, he wasn't startled at the sound of my voice. But I was somehow grateful when he pushed himself off the wall.

"No." Was his answer, just when I thought he would leave me without it. "Weren't you sleeping?"

"Uh." I admitted, wondering what was with his eyes. Something was off; just trying to meet his gaze was sending shivers up my arms. "I haven't slept much lately."

Itachi's gaze slipped from me, in the same glassy expression. It felt as if he was looking over my shoulder at something. I had to dig my heels into the stone floor not to glance back.

"So if anything happened in Sasuke's room, you would hear it?" Itachi asked the wall behind me, but I answered anyways because I am nice like that.

"Probably. During the night, at least."

The thickness of the walls worked more than fine as a sound isolator during the day but, at this deaf hour, it was very hard to miss any loud noises in this part of the house if you're awake. I heard Sasuke walking out of his room every time and, often, I also heard him when he returned early in the morning.

"Good." Itachi said. He blinked and then looked right back at me. It felt as if he, at that moment, just found me standing there with him. "That is good. I feel better now."

Itachi left me there standing, barefoot and puzzled. Eventually I got back to bed. Sasuke didn't leave his room that night.

I couldn't help but cast glances every so often at Itachi the next morning. I didn't understand what he was playing at the previous night. It was understandable that he was worried and came to check at his brother, but to just open and close the door and then lean at the wall nearby? Was he thinking about what he should do? Considering ways to make Sasuke talk? I don't know. And because of how odd – absent, I guess, – his eyes seemed to me when we talked. I didn't like it.

Itachi didn't talk to me at all that day. He rarely would, except to answer a direct question or ask me to help him with something, but I wanted a chance to ask questions. I didn't get one. In the end, I decided he was just worried – anxious long looks he was giving to his brother were more than enough to convince me.

Unexpectedly, it was Sasuke who started the conversation about it. It was evening and I was watching a movie on the television while he was sitting on the floor near the window. Kakashi and Obito were playing cards again and Itachi was working, his laptop hiding him from all of us. I felt it, before I saw, when Sasuke sat on the couch next to me.

"What were you doing in the hallway last night?"

For a moment, my mind still full of the intense movie scene, I couldn't understand what he was talking about. It was just a second or two, but Sasuke's temper hadn't improved with the lack of sleep and whatever was bothering him.

"I'm talking to you, idiot. What were you doing in front of my room at three in the morning?"

I was happy while a surge of annoyance washed over me, if that makes any sense. "Going to the bathroom?"

He said, matter-of-factly. "You were talking to someone."

"And you recognized my voice, but not your brother's?" I asked him, and he flinched a tiny little bit on my words. "Wasn't he in your room just a minute earlier anyway? It's what woke me up."

Sasuke frowned at the laptop, or more likely at Itachi concealed behind it. "I wasn't sure who it was."

Because that was more words than we've exchanged in days I couldn't help but blink a couple of times in mock-flirting and gasp. "And you thought it was me, coming to tuck you in?"

"I wouldn't be surprised." Sasuke answered, narrowing his red-rimed eyes. "You keep following me around, like a lost puppy."

I was equally annoyed with the way he put it, and glad he wasn't too lost in his own world to notice.

"It's because you started acting weirdly after that cat thing." I grumbled. "Also, this place is boring. When are you going to snap out of it so I can kick your ass?"

The very, very thin smirk that tugged the corner of Sasuke's mouth felt like adrenalin attack. I had to take a generous breath, which finally broke it for me: I was sporting a rather huge crush for him.

"Maybe I'll let you try sometime."

I snorted, cockily. "_Try_, my ass."

That thin smirk widened as Sasuke rose his eyebrows. It took me a moment to realize it. That was a rather unfortunate choice of words, yes, but for Sasuke to, pretty much, point out that they can be taken differently without making me feel like a complete moron… Now, that was different.

We spent the rest of the evening in light banter, mostly fighting about what we should watch. The conversation never strayed to any form of, um, flirting after that, but I was feeling very good. Just the realization that I must have been very obvious and Sasuke hadn't said anything insulting about it made me hopeful.

*

The next two days weren't too bad, even the weather was better. But following Sasuke around to make sure that he was okay became a habit. I couldn't help it. It felt as if he would start falling apart as soon as weren't in the same room. I was glad he wasn't complaining, but I was feeling ridiculous myself.

Then it started again. Well, that might not be the right way to put it, because it never stopped, just softened somehow. The heavy atmosphere that Obito couldn't ease with jokes – not even when I was helping, Sasuke's burden, Itachi's silence; everything came back. By then, I'd learned how to love the place, the house and the land around it; even if Kakashi wasn't having his quality time with Obito, I wouldn't have wanted to go, no matter how hard things seemed.

Not to mention, abandoning Obito to cope with all that shit himself wasn't an option.

Even falling asleep in the family room, when we all were there, wasn't helping anymore. Sasuke would jerk awake after ten-fifteen minutes, breathing heavily, and look around, with an expression too close to panic, for comfort. It was heartbreaking to watch him. He'd turned paler than normal and was extremely tired, but he refused every suggestion to go to a hospital. There was nothing we could do; he was of age and very determined, so everyone was tense and on the edge. On cloudy days, if felt as if the calm would break any second and storm us off our feet.

After a while, Sasuke stopped leaving his room. Then one night, the the shrill sound of his door opening crushed my light sleep. I listened intently for a minute, but there was nothing. Irrationally scared all of the sudden, I jumped off my bed and ran for the door, sure it that it must be Itachi again. Without hesitation, I jerked my doorknob, and the door opened easily. But instead of Itachi, Sasuke was standing in the hall, a few feet away from my door, with eyes widened in surprise.

I couldn't think of anything to say. After a moment, as soon as surprise oozed out of him, Sasuke glanced over his shoulder towards his room. A very obvious shiver passed his shoulders and, without a word, he pushed me aside and walked into my room.

I followed, confused but not entirely unhappy.

"What are you doing up at this hour?" Sasuke demanded, like I was the one who woke him up.

"What are _you_ doing up at this hour in my room?" I retorted, which was a mistake. Sasuke took a sharp breath and stood completely still for a moment in the middle of my room, then strode towards the door. I quickly inserted myself on his way.

"No, look. I'm sorry." I said quickly. "I'm glad you're here, I wouldn't be able to go back to sleep anyway."

That wasn't exactly the truth. I was still sleepy, but I wanted him to stay more. Sasuke didn't answer. He wasn't trying to go around me, either. I took that as a sign of encouragement.

"We can talk or something." I offered after some silence.

Sasuke obviously didn't want to talk, but he walked over to the only armchair in the room. He dragged it a little, so it would face the window before he set down. There was nothing else for me to do but go back to bed. The floor was too cold to stand on it. There was nothing else for me to sit on.

Leaning on my pillow, I could see only Sasuke's elbow and a knee after he gathered his right leg close to him. His breathing was barely audible. I was comfortable and warm inside of my covers, reassured by his presence. It wasn't too long before I started drifting off.

"It's a ghost."

Sasuke's voice was nothing but a whisper, but it snatched my attention. Did I hear it correctly? Did he say that it's a _ghost_? I held my breath; half expecting that I'd imagined he'd spoken. But he spoke again. "That's crazy, right? But that is what I see."

Finally, I managed: "A ghost?"

My disbelieving tone seemed to have encouraged Sasuke, not insulted him, like I feared it would when it got out of my mouth.

"He is everywhere, all the time." He said after a soft snort, and then paused. "I can't see him in daylight, but I feel him." After that came an even longer pause. "He's always there."

I don't believe in ghosts. I didn't think he was seeing one, not really. But the shattered way he was speaking, in short, shaky sentences made me afraid. For two weeks, he had walked around, thinking that there was a ghost following him? If he wasn't crazy and hallucinating in the first place, he would have gone crazy after all this time.

"So what does it want?" I asked finally.

Sasuke shifted in the armchair to look back at me sharply through his hair. "What?"

I didn't expect him to be mad if I went along with it, so I hesitated before answering. "Well. Isn't that what ghosts do when they haunt people? Want something?"

Sasuke laughed, same hysterical laugh as when I said we were going crazy with him in the house. It made my skin feel like worms were crawling underneath it. "Naruto. There are no such things as ghosts."

But – didn't he just say he was being followed around by one? I tried thinking back. Yeah, he said he's seeing a ghost. But he also asked me to confirm that it was crazy.

Ah. It would explain why he wasn't talking to anyone about it and the general way he was acting and responding. Sasuke was afraid he was going crazy. And, by trying to hide it, fight it, or whatever he thought he was doing, he was slowly losing his mind.

"Maybe it's some subconscious thing." I said hopefully. "You have something bothering you, and it manifests in a form of a ghost. When you make peace with whatever is it that is making it happen, you'll get better."

There was no answer. Sasuke was back to looking through the window, or I assume that that was the reason he turned the chair to face it.

I spoke again when he didn't answer: "I think you should ask your ghost what it wants."

"I think you should go back to sleep." Sasuke grumped back at me.

As I shifted further under the covers, I smiled. Ghost or not, Sasuke talking to someone about it was better than suffering through it alone. I was happy he came to me. Maybe it was because I was in the closest room when he finally snapped and wanted to talk, but that was okay. It was an opening, he gave me an opening, now I knew what questions to ask. I bet Obito would be much less worried, if he knew what was bothering Sasuke so much.

"Naruto?" Sasuke called, just my name already carrying a warning. "Not a word about it to anyone. Especially not to my brother."

Inwardly, I grumbled how he can't tell me what to do but, for once, I held my tongue. Sasuke didn't need the confirmation; he seemed to believe I would listen even without a promise. I fell asleep some time later, making a mental list of questions about his 'ghost'.

*

I had a good night of dreamless sleep, so I woke up rested. Sasuke, of course, was already gone. He left the chair in where he moved it, with a blanket crumpled on the seat. I couldn't remember him bringing one in, so he probably got it after I fell asleep. I hoped not being alone in the room helped him somehow.

Downstairs, Kakashi served me one of, until recently, vacuum wrapped croissants while Itachi watched the wall and Obito whispered something to his other nephew. Sasuke was listening with an annoyed expression and I wanted badly to spare him, because Obito could be really, really persistent. Kakashi kicked me under the table before I managed to think of something. I gave a loud yelp and glared.

Obito stopped whispering for a moment to check if I was okay. Sasuke used it to get up and escape, bringing his own croissant with him outside.

"You sure are in a good mood." Kakashi commented after a few minutes.

Mouth still full, I widened my eyes: "Me? What do you mean?"

I couldn't fool someone who knew me as well as Kakashi did. He gave me a really long look, one that would usually compel me into spitting out the truth. Instead of asking me again, since I managed not to say anything, he said: "Sasuke looks like he actually spent an hour or two sleeping last night."

Carefully, I swallowed another bite. "That's good, isn't it?"

"It would be better if we knew what helped."

Kakashi was speaking, but I raised my head to find Obito and Itachi watching me as well. Great, now they were ganging up on me.

"Not asking too many questions." I snapped, annoyed that I was being interrogated. Sasuke would have told them he spent the night in my room if he wanted to and, anyway, he told me not to talk about his ghost. I didn't think that would help him, but it also wouldn't be good if I opened my mouth.

Besides, not asking questions had worked better than asking a lot of them.

I ate the rest of my breakfast quickly, under Kakashi's scrutiny, and ran out of the kitchen. I wanted to take a long walk and think about what was going on, so I went out. There was a strong wind blowing outside, with little bits of rain in it. The sky was promising that the light drizzle was only the beginning, but I walked the familiar path down the hill anyway. It was either that or hide in my room the entire day.

By the time I got to the tree trunk over the river, the rain was much harder. The ground was still mostly dry in some places, under the thick treetops;; there was only so much water that could get through. I wasn't really surprised Sasuke was sitting there again.

The rain was falling freely over that part of the river. Sasuke was letting it fall on his head and on his face. His hair and clothes were wet already.

I walked over and sat next to him, but on the opposite side. He didn't move or acknowledge me in any way, but from this close, I could see him shaking. Was he cold? Or was this some mental break down? Either way, I wanted to put my hands around him badly.

"Did you tell them?" Sasuke asked, not opening his eyes.

"Of course not." I answered indignantly.

He opened his eyes and looked at me through wet eyelashes, sad and amused all at once. "You were _supposed_ to tell them, you idiot."

I gaped. "You told me not to! How was I supposed to do it if you told me not to? What kind of logic is that?"

Sasuke didn't answer for a moment, he was just looking at me. His eyes were still red, face pale but not as much as they were on what, recently, was a normal day. But that it didn't make his staring any less intense.

"I'm crazy now. I can use whatever logic I want."

His voice was soft, softer then I ever heard it before. I knew we were talking about serious things here – Sasuke wasn't well – but I couldn't help but wonder if he would speak so softly to me in bed. Or would everything have to be violent and harsh between us, like it was before?

"You told me not to tell them." I repeated.

Sasuke's mouth quirked and he gave me what could be only described as a tired smirk. "Since when did you start to do what I tell you?"

I think he leaned toward me. We couldn't have ended so close otherwise. I didn't see when that happened. His arm was brushing mine, warm underneath the wetness of his sleeve

"Ah, I see." I said when I processed his words. "You were using me. If I told them, you wouldn't have to deal with looks on their faces when they find out."

"Yes." Sasuke admitted without a pause.

I felt a little insulted. "Well, sorry. You will have to do it on your own."

It wasn't my imagination. For a short moment, his entire body leaned on mine, like he needed comfort, or something. Would accepting the gesture be exploiting his weakness? I couldn't tell for sure at that moment, so I curled my fingers to keep myself from leaning back into him, but he stood up quickly anyway.

"Looks like it. Are you coming to watch the show?"

It surprised me. "Now?"

Sasuke was already walking away, but he threw over his shoulder. "Now."

I got up myself and followed. Yeah, it was the show I didn't want to miss, even if I wasn't expecting to have any fun watching. Much like the last time Sasuke and I were going back to the house on the same path, we walked next to one another, only this time much faster. I had to hurry to keep up with his unwavering pace, which wasn't easy with mud sucking my shoes and rain pelting harder and harder by the minute.


	3. Chapter 3

Part 3

**Your Brightest Voice**

_All argument is against it; but all belief is for it_.

On ghosts, in James Boswell 'The Life of Samuel Johnson'

Itachi and Obito sat side by side at the kitchen table, looking up expectantly at Sasuke as he stood behind a chair meant to help to keep him as far away as possible from his relatives. Though Kakashi skulked around the open doors, I considered myself invited so I sat in one of the free chairs at the side of the table. It gave me a perfect view of what was going on.

"A _what_?" Obito asked after glancing sideways at Itachi, who was just staring at his brother without any reaction.

Sasuke's fingernails scraped audibly against the wooden backseat of the chair. "Ghost, I said. You know, like Casper."

"Casper, the friendly ghost?" I chipped in.

Sasuke gave a one shoulder shrug in response. "I don't know about friendly. He doesn't really talk."

When I opened my mouth to ask if the ghost _was_ doing something, Obito beat me to it as he made a pained face. "Sasuke… I don't know. A ghost?"

Obito made it very clear using just those words and a certain tone of voice that he didn't believe in ghosts either. However, Sasuke's nails scraped the wood stronger. He wasn't taking it nearly as well as when I acted like I didn't believe him.

There was no response, so Obito said. "I don't like it."

Sasuke cast a glance somewhere over my shoulder and frowned. I wondered if that was where his ghost stood right then, standing behind me? The thought made me want to turn around very badly but, instead, I moved my chair so I could see the spot with the corner of my eyes. There was, of course, nothing there.

"I think we all know what this means." Itachi finally spoke. _I_ didn't know what it means, and I was about to point that out, but Itachi turned to me. "Could you leave the room, Naruto? This is family business."

I couldn't as well say 'no'. I wasn't a part of the family, but I still couldn't resist taking another careful look at Sasuke while I stood. He had his hands deep in the pockets of his jeans, looking sullenly at the table surface. With nothing else to do, I walked out of the kitchen and closed the door behind me.

Kakashi was standing just outside the open front door, watching the hard rain fall from the first step. I went to him.

"Don't be so disappointed." Kakashi said after talking one look at my face. "Itachi is just trying to protect his family."

"It's not fair." I complained. I wasn't surprised that he had apparently heard everything. "Obito will tell you first chance he gets and then all of you guys will know except me."

Kakashi made a little humming noise. It generally meant he knew something I didn't. In this case, it meant he already knew what was going on.

"What?" I demanded. "You know it, don't you? Tell me."

But he didn't tell me, not right then, no matter how many times I asked.

Sasuke locked himself in his room after the kitchen conversation ended. It seemed very odd to me, with him seeing a ghost everywhere he went. Ghosts are creepy. If they weren't, they wouldn't be a big deal. If something transparent and silent followed me around, I would at the very least try to be constantly in someone's company, human company. Sasuke preferred to be alone with his ghost.

I kept imagining him, laying alone on his bed, staring at his ghost in some corner. It made me so sad. That must be horrible. The closest place I could be to Sasuke, aside from sitting in front of his door, was in my room, so that was where I spent many hours that day.

That evening, Kakashi knocked on my door and walked inside without an invitation. I was in the armchair, consciously mimicking the way Sasuke was sitting last night.

"I have to talk to you." Kakashi said as an introduction.

I started to panic. "We're not going home, right? Please tell me we're not."

He was shaking his head no before I even finished, but that didn't help much. He was too serious, even for the situation.

"What we talked about earlier…" It took me a moment to remember. He was talking about that thing everyone knew but me. "Have you ever heard that mental illnesses are something that runs in families?"

I nodded, carefully trying not to bring out the wrong conclusions.

"Fugaku – Obito's late brother - had spent several years in a mental hospital before he killed himself." Kakashi told me in soft voice. "They are afraid that something similar could happen to Sasuke."

That made me sad and very sorry. The way Sasuke was acting, the ways he reacted and tried to deal with things, I could see the reason for it now. No wonder he wasn't telling anyone what was wrong.

"Was he seeing ghosts, too?" I asked, referring to Fugaku. Obito had mentioned his older brother, Itachi's and Sasuke's father, a few times before. But it was always some childhood stories, theirs or Itachi's and Sasuke's, but nothing related to his death.

"No. He attacked Obito with a knife. It happened once, but he insisted he was insane and committed himself to the hospital so he wouldn't do anything like that again. It happened in this house, which is why they hadn't been coming here. " Kakashi answered. "You can see why they are afraid."

Yeah, could see why they were scared. I could understand why something like teenage rebellion or a heavy case of insomnia would be taken so seriously in this family. I finally understood why Sasuke was so desperate not to tell anyone what was wrong and why was he so sure he was crazy.

I mean, if a ghost showed itself to me, I would, well, probably freak out at first. But then I would try to find out if there was a person like the one I was seeing and what happened to them. I'd rather believe that ghosts existed - many people already did anyway - than Find out that I was the one who had something wrong with him.

"So, what now?" I asked.

Kakashi hesitated, which had always made me nervous. Combined with his concerned frown, I knew there was more bad news on the way.

"You know that they are considerably wealthy." Kakashi said. I wondered what that had to do with anything. "Mental instability in the family is not something that would reflect well on business, especially because this would be the second generation of it."

"What? So they won't do anything? Or, what - lock him up in the attic?" I demanded. Fuck business, was Itachi that much of a freak? Who cares about that, his brother wasn't well!

"Of course they will try to help him." Kakashi said sharply, giving me a look that assured me that he wouldn't let anything else happen, even if the Uchihas were all collectively so senseless. That calmed me down a little. "But it will have to be discreet."

"So? Are you saying I can't talk about it to other people? Because I wasn't planning on doing that anyway."

Kakashi gave me a little smile.

"I have no doubt about your discretion." Well, of course, he shouldn't have any doubts. He knows me better then that. "But this will take some professional help as well."

I waited, even though Kakashi stopped. I had no idea what was he aiming for.

"It would be better if the doctor is someone reliable. Someone who would be willing to come here so Sasuke wouldn't be seen around a public office." Kakashi explained. "Psychiatrists don't do house calls often."

I was still puzzled. Why was all that important, especially to me? I had to go on therapy sessions after my parents died and Kakashi took me in. I was twelve and sure that I was doing well. Not crying, not even mentioning my parents and the accident. But my teachers at school and Kakashi had different ideas. I changed several doctors but, aside from the first one, it wasn't all that bad - you just talk about whatever comes to mind and they call it progress.

"I know you dislike him, Naruto." Kakashi cut through my thoughts. "But he is the only psychiatrist any of us know personally, and getting his number from Jiraiya is easy."

My eyes widened fearfully with the thought that my hunch would be correct. "Orochimaru?" I asked, repulsed. It couldn't be. Kakashi wouldn't do that, right? "Please tell me you didn't call _him_."

Kakashi sighed. He wasn't very clear on my violent dislike of the man, and that was my fault. It shouldn't _matter_. He found me another one when I asked. Couldn't he find someone else now?

"Itachi has already made the call. He will be here tomorrow."

Apparently not. How much money had Itachi offered to make the busy private practitioner leave his job and travel to some fucking neverland? It was probably too late for me to do anything then, but I couldn't help but ask: "Did Itachi tell him how old Sasuke is?"

Kakashi whipped me with one of his sharpest looks. "Yes."

I relaxed slightly, even though that didn't change much. Yes, Sasuke was much older then I was when I was seeing Orochimaru. I didn't want that fucker anywhere near Sasuke anyway.

But then, Orochimaru was a well known psychiatrist with a very good reputation. He could actually help. And it's not like I had proof to show Itachi and, on top of all that, he was my godfather's brother. So I decided to just keep an eye on the old freaky pedophile.

***

Just like Kakashi told me, Orochimaru came the next day. He was still as greasy looking as ever, in a purple shirt and smile that was just disgusting. When Kakashi introduced a tired and slouched Sasuke, I just wanted to go over there and put a physical obstacle between them. Kakashi had his hand on my shoulder, almost like he was restraining me. I had no idea if I was that obvious or he just knew me that well.

After Orochimaru met Obito and Itachi, he stopped his freaky eyes on me.

"Naruto." He said. I could almost feel his cold hand on my knee, the memory was that forceful. "You are certainly a grown-up now."

"Too bad we can't be children forever?." I gritted out. What I actually wanted to say was: _Disappointed, you fucking pervert? _

Orochimaru smiled sluggishly, widely.

"It's only natural to grow up." He answered, undisturbed. "We get to meet interesting people along the way."

I was never itching so much to hit someone in my life. God, I hated him. But Kakashi's fingers curled into my shoulder so I just turned my head away from the old snake.

Later Obito found me in the garden. He tried to look as if he was there by accident but it was very obvious he was looking for me.

"What are you up to?" He asked, after pretending for several seconds that he was interested in a broken plank on the fence nearby. I shrugged. "You pretty much left the house as soon as the doctor came and you missed the lunch."

I I hadn't actually planned to miss my meals because of that guy, it was an accident. I guess I was just too deep in thought or something.

"I wasn't hungry."

Obito raised an eyebrow in disbelief. "You weren't hungry? That's a new one." When I didn't answer him, he decided to finally get to the point. "So, why do you dislike him so much?"

I didn't want to tell him. It was pointless anyway. Sasuke wasn't a kid and, if Orochimaru tried to do something inappropriate, he should be able to defend himself. Because I was quiet back then, afraid to look weak and not exactly sure what it all meant, I shouldn't be talking now.

I shrugged. "I just don't."

To his credit, Obito tried to drag the real answer out of me many times.. I didn't tell him anything. He was nice and all, but not really someone I wanted to confide to. He told me, though, when Sasuke's first séance would be held so I was grateful he came to look for me.

***

Later that afternoon, we all got out of the house to free the living room for the therapy section. It was the most logical place, I guess. I was just happy no one suggested Sasuke's room. I wouldn't have accepted that suggestion.

At first, I pretended to entertain myself. When I couldn't restrain myself any longer, I told Kakashi I was going to take a walk. A big circle was necessary so no one would notice, but I got back as soon as I could. The window of the room Kakashi and Obito were sharing was open, just as I expected it to be. Kakashi always had the window open often even in the middle of the winter.

It was easy to climb over, not high at all. I was trying to be quiet when I stepped inside, but there was no way to hear anything until I kneeled next to the door and put my ear on the keyhole.

At first, there was a string of questions about what Sasuke felt about it all, some about Itachi and Obito and their reaction, yadda, yadda, yadda. I couldn't see anything, though. But Sasuke wouldn't be grunting yes's and no's so calmly if Orochimaru was trying to feel him up, right?

Then the part I _was_ interested about came.

"Tell me more about the ghost." Orochimaru inquired. On this side of the door, when I couldn't see him, he sounded very professional and reassuring.

"What about it?" Sasuke protested. "It's just a hallucination."

"That doesn't mean it's unimportant." I was a little disturbed with myself for agreeing with the bad doctor. "It is possible that the manifestation is reflecting a real problem you have, something we can deal with."

Sasuke was silent for a moment, possibly thinking it through.

"It's a boy." He finally said.

Orochimaru prompted, gently. "A boy?"

"Around thirteen, maybe a little less." Sasuke continued. Fucker was really good at his job. "He doesn't have… I don't know what he wants."

"But you think he wants something?"

Silence for a moment, and then Sasuke said. "I don't know. It's just something Naruto said."

My heard skipped a couple of beats on the sound of my name.

"Oh?" Orochimaru said, his voice freezing over. I smiled to myself. It seemed like he disliked me just as much as I disliked him. Good to know. "What did he say?"

"He said that that is why ghosts are haunting people. Because they want something."

I couldn't remember for a moment when I said it. I didn't really believe in ghosts, but it made some sense. I remembered later – it was that night when he told me about the ghost.

"That sounds like Naruto actually believes there is a ghost haunting you. How do you feel about that?"

"I don't know." Sasuke said after some thinking. "Better. Less crazy."

Those words had me flinch back from the door. He was so stuck on that insanity shit, and so was everyone else. It must be hard to deal with. But he was feeling better because I sounded like I believed it was really a ghost? I made him feel better?

And besides, I thought as I remembered Sasuke's tired face from all the sleepless nights, who says it's not really a ghost? I have a hard time to believe in something I can't see or feel, but I saw plenty horror movies. Ghosts don't appear to everyone, only some people can see them. And I was obviously not one of them. Maybe Sasuke is.

If he was going around claiming he is a medium of some sort, talking to ghosts, I wouldn't believe him. But he was so sure he was crazy and having hallucinations. We were writing him off too soon just because his father was insane.

I decided to investigate.

I had to take the same wide pathway back, but when I did, the session wasn't over yet. Itachi was looking into his laptop again, typing something. Kakashi and Obito had apparently decided to use the time they had outside to tidy up the garden. Obito was down on his knees, weeding as Kakashi stood nearby, pretending to ignore his talking lover by reading a book but, in reality, was soaking in every word..

I took the chair next to Itachi.

"Hey." I said. It would be better to talk to Obito about it, but I couldn't wait. With Itachi, though, I had to be direct. "Was there some deaths in this house?"

Itachi pierced through my head with his sharp eyes. "What?"

"You know, did anyone die here in the house? _Violently_?"

Itachi kept looking at me like I was a really odd specimen. "It's just a hallucination, Naruto. He doesn't really see a ghost."

My first impulse was to want to tell him that he couldn't know and that he was a really bad brother. I surprised myself when I agreed more with the second.

"Well, there is a doctor in there to help with that. I'm just curious…" Itachi wasn't buying it, I could tell, so I rolled my eyes. "Fine, I'm not _just_ curious, I'm wondering if it is possible he can actually see ghosts. Wouldn't that be better?"

Itachi's' eyes slipped off me and to somewhere behind my back. It was late afternoon, sunny and bright, Obito was chattering in the background. Even with that, I was eerily reminded of that night when I found Itachi in front of Sasuke's room; he looked behind me with the same glassy eyes back then too. I couldn't suppress the shiver that ran down my spine.

"Itachi?" I called him hesitantly. With what looked like a lot of effort, Itachi met my gaze again. He wasn't talking, though. Completely freaked out without any real reason, I stood up. Orochimaru had the wrong fucking brother in there. _This_ one was in greater need for a sanity check.

I turned, unable to resist looking at where he was staring earlier in our conversation. There was nothing there, just shadows of the house and lilac threes over the fence; not that I was expecting to see anything.

"There was a disappearance once." Itachi said behind me. His voice sounded forced, like he was talking nails, not words. "A boy disappeared some fifty years ago from this house. He was never found."

A boy… I took a deep breath to chase off the unreal feeling that flooded me, like a river after rain.. A boy? Maybe, just _maybe_, we were onto something here.

My voice was slightly shaking when I asked – probably more from the excitement at that point, than from fear or disbelief "Around thirteen?"

Itachi nodded, once. "Is that how Sasuke described the ghost? He didn't tell me anything."

Odd that, I thought, when you have writing him off as crazy at the first word. But I didn't say anything. "Who was he? Do you know more about him?"

Itachi was just looking at me for a long moment, and then his eyes slipped off me again. I shivered, there was no stopping it. Every time Itachi would do that, it was as if his eyes were drained of life, leaving just a body, emptiness behind. It lasted longer than the first and the second time, and I watched, fascinated, as Itachi titled his head, like he was listening to the wind caressing plants.

"You are stepping over your boundaries." Itachi finally answered. His dark, hollow gaze returned to me a moment after. "You are not a part of the family."

It hurt. No, I wasn't family. Not even Kakashi was. That didn't mean he can yank me around, it didn't mean he had to say it like that.

"That doesn't mean I don't care." I grumbled, upset. Maybe Itachi had an answer in some form, but I didn't stick around to hear it.

Kakashi wouldn't like me to dig into something I was specifically told was none of my business but had no plans of leaving it alone. Especially after finding out that there was a missing boy who matched Sasuke's ghost. Chances were bigger that Sasuke was not imagining if he didn't know about that incident. Even if he did, it was worth checking. I planned on cornering Obito, but I needed to think about how to go around things so he wouldn't tell anyone. Not only because of Itachi and Kakashi, but also because wasn't sure how Sasuke would react if he found out about me trying to prove him sane.

The garden wasn't big enough to find a place to be alone and as far away from Itachi as I wanted to be right then, so I went to help Obito. Kakashi's careful eyes on me were both annoying and welcome. The sensation of someone caring always makes everything at least a little better.

***

I didn't get the chance to talk to Obito that evening at all. He was busy trying to be a better host than his nephews were. Triying to add Orochimaru into the routine we had created in the several weeks of staying at the house.

I skipped dinner entirely. I didn't want to eat at the same table with Orochimaru, not when I could just go to the kitchen once they finished, even if Sasuke looked half way back to life because of it. There was some cartoon playing on the television, so I snuggled into my favorite spot on the long couch and almost got in the mood to laugh at the cutest parts of it.

I didn't feel anyone walking around me, but then a plate with a sandwich on it landed onto my lap. If anyone, I expected Kakashi or possibly Obito. But neither one would take the remote without asking and change the channel despite me obviously watching. That was something only Sasuke would do, so I knew it was him before he sat down next to me.

I put the plate on the coffee table and moved to take the remote back. He had no right; I was there first, so it was only fair to watch what I wanted. Sasuke raised it as high as he could on the opposite side, so all I could do was glare. Trying to grab it from over there would lead us into a really awkward position.

"What was it?" Sasuke asked when I gave up.

"What was what?"

"What he did to you?"

I wasn't sure, but I had a pretty good idea who was he talking about. "Orochimaru?"

Sasuke didn't confirm, just kept waiting for me to answer the question. I considered it. He looked a bit better now. He had kidnapped my remote; even if it wasn't obvious on his face that would have given me a clue. And if he was doing fine, and he was too old to be in danger, it didn't matter.

"He didn't do anything." I said.

"You're lying."

I wasn't, not really. I don't know why, exactly, but that simple way he stated it made me want to explain. He told me about the ghost, after all. This wasn't nearly as big of a deal. I glanced back at the door, to check on the others. It caught me by surprise that it was closed - they were always open, including the hallway as one huge room. It was safe to talk, Sasuke took care of it.

I leaned in and whispered anyway. "He really didn't do anything. The problem is that I'm not sure if he would have if I haven't made a ruckus and stormed out."

"When was that?"

"When my parents died. I was twelve, I – made trouble in school a lot. Kakashi was worried" I _fought_ in school a lot, Kakashi was probably not just worried about how I'm dealing with everything, but also because it was just a matter of time when I would run into someone who'd beat me up. "And my school suggested a therapist. Orochimaru is my godfather's brother, so he made an exception, even though I was younger than his usual clientele."

He was a specialist for problematic adolescents.

"So?" Sasuke asked when I quieted down. "What happened?"

The frustrating part was, I wasn't sure if I could explain it. But when I got that far already, I could as well try. It wasn't as if Sasuke was the one to mock some irrationality.

"Alright, his office was one of those made to look like living room, comfortable, you know? And I was being stubborn about answering him something – I can't even remember what was it now – so he leaned in, a little bit to close, and put his hand on my knee. I freaked, knocked down some lamps and ran out."

Sasuke was frowning. "That doesn't sound very professional."

"Yeah, but he didn't _do_ anything." I insisted. If he had, I would have said something. "But I can't help but think he would have, so I don't like him. Even if that's not true,"

"It doesn't sound to me as if you overreacted. He should've had kept his hands to himself."

There was some anger in that, I was pleased to hear. But Sasuke disliking his doctor would not help him get better, so I added, "It's a gesture I saw millions of times before and after that, and they meant nothing. I was desperate to get out of there, he was… getting closer, I guess. Thinking about it now, I might have overreacted, because I was feeling trapped…"

"If you thought he was about to molest you then," Sasuke interrupted me. "You were probably right."

Yeah, I agreed with that completely. I remembered it well. In my mind, there was no doubt he was not just innocently trying to get me to talk. I'm not good with lying and Sasuke is not good with buying bullshit. I sighed and gave up. We won't be here forever; he can find another doctor when we leave the place.

"So." I said after a moment in which Sasuke was thinking about something with his eyes narrowed. The traces of exhaustion on his face were even more visible with the bluish light coming from the screen. "How did the first session go? Was he helpful? Did he try touching you inappropriately?"

"No." Sasuke answered, probably only to the last question.

"'_No_'?" I demanded. "That's all I get after telling you all the details about my unhappy childhood?"

"Yes." Sasuke said, but he was smirking. Well, maybe I couldn't make him smile, but smirking was better than frowning. I'd take what I could get.

But it was a good opportunity, so I had to ask. "Tell me more about the ghost, then. Have you asked him what he wants from you yet?"

I was sort of sorry when Sasuke glanced on the side, where there was nothing but wall. He didn't do it once since we started talking, but he could obviously see his ghost there.

"That's not funny." Sasuke finally said. He was still looking over his shoulder to the empty wall, expressionless. It was the truth, it wasn't funny. I didn't think it was funny. But I think that was the moment when I simply stopped trying and started actually believing he's seeing a ghost.

There was not much space between us to begin with, because of the remote thing, so it took my minimal effort to be so close to whisper. "Show him to me."

I'm not sure if I startled him by speaking up so closely or he didn't notice me nearing at all, but Sasuke flinched a little. Kneeling on the couch, inches from where he was sitting on one leg and looking over his shoulder, I was close enough to feel it. "What?"

I prompted my head on my left arm on the couch's backseat. For someone asking to be introduced to a ghost, my heart was weirdly restless from the realization that Sasuke was not moving away.

"He's there, the ghost?" I asked, nodding at the wall he was watching moments ago. Sasuke's eyes flickered there before returning to me, suspicions and narrowed and much closer then I dared to hope they would ever be. "Tell me where exactly. Tell me how he looks like. Tell me what to look for."

"Naruto." Sasuke said. I loved the way he was saying my name when he wanted me to pay attention to his opinion on my intelligence, like it was a sentence on its own. I smiled. "There is nothing there. It's just in my head."

"If it is, then I won't be able to see it. No reason not to show me."

Sasuke wasn't answering; he just kept staring at me. I wasn't sure if those sparks of emotion on his face were really there, or my imagination. It wasn't even important, as long as he was looking at me. Once I passed whatever kind of test that staring was, Sasuke inhaled sharply.

"Fine." He said, his voice quiet but not soft. "I'll show you."

I smiled again, and used the opportunity to edge closer. Sasuke was concentrating back on the wall again, I'm not sure if he noticed.

"By the oil painting, the one with vase and dry flowers." I looked. It was a dark, lifeless painting. Flowers in the vase were not just dry, they looked like mean thorns from a grotesque old story. How awfully fitting, I was thinking. "Just under the right edge of the frame."

The wall was painted in simple white. I carefully let my eyes scan over every inch of that piece of it, but there was noting but white and later, some gray flickering stains dancing around, from the strain.

At some point, Sasuke stopped looking there, and focused on me. It wasn't distracting, all I could feel was his wonder. Without turning to him, I asked: "More."

"He is young, around twelve, but tall for his age. His hair is very dark. He's wearing some thin gray pants and a shirt that is ripped on many places." Sasuke paused there shortly, and then gave a little mocking snort. "I keep thinking he must be cold at night - I can't…"

He cut himself off. Ignoring the little frustrated sound he was making deep in his throat, I whispered. "You think he might have been cold when he died?"

"Why are you doing this?" Sasuke asked sharply. "It's just a hallucination."

His attention was completely on me then, so I averted my eyes from the empty wall. There was nothing there anyway, at least nothing I could see.

"Because…" I said very softly, thinking about it. We were to close for comfort already, so when Sasuke leaned in to catch what I was saying, our noses were almost touching. I could say nothing but the truth, as I released the air I stole from him. "It's freaking me out less."

Sasuke closed his eyes and let his head fall a little forward. His hair brushed my forehead. "I don't care anymore, I don't care if it's really a ghost or I'm crazy or there is a summit of little green aliens doing excitements on me, I just want to get some real sleep."

I don't know what gave me the courage. It might have been that rawness in his voice, the tiredness in his shoulders and that he was not retreating, even though we were sitting on the couch in the living room where anyone could have walked in any second. We weren't doing anything, but it felt more intimate then anything I've experienced before. So I moved my arms, wrapped him around his back and pulled him closer.

"Sleep, then." I said into his hair. "I'll watch television."

I'll stay awake. I'll pay attention. I'll take care of you, nothing's going to hurt you. Any of those would be truer, but Sasuke was letting his head fall on my shoulder as I leaned. His body settled easily against mine, but he was still holding onto the backseat of the couch, fingers curled around the edge of the thick green couch cover.

"He has no eyes, Naruto." Sasuke murmured. I have no idea if I froze from his words or his breath on my neck. It was probably both. "There're just holes where his eyes should be, and they are always bleeding…"

I stiffly waited for more, but nothing came. Sasuke was out, right there, in the living room, on my shoulder. As happy as I was, it also made me sad. It wasn't something you'd expect Sasuke would _ever_ do. How tired, exactly, was he?

I didn't dare to move. Not even when everyone came into the room some minutes later and stared down at us with various expressions flickering on their faces. Kakashi was smiling, but not at us. He was smiling at Obito who had such a dumbfounded look, like he was certain that Sasuke and I were different species until that point. Itachi showed no reaction, but Orochimaru gave me a tight smile that felt dirty, like I was on a photo shooting for a porn magazine.

I didn't care. Sasuke was breathing evenly, deeply, fast asleep, and I don't think I'd care much if ceiling started falling off above out heads. He was still holding the remote in one hand, and I had to invest some patience and a lot of careful work into retreating it, but I managed. Others were quiet at the back of the room, so I found my cartoons again and lowered the volume of the television.

That evening, the old country house felt as warm as comfortable as Kakashi's and mine apartment for the first time. I think I used the evening well.

***

Sasuke had fallen asleep around eight, maybe. He wasn't moving so I couldn't move until he flinched at something in his dream and jerked awake, on a deaf hour early in the morning.

"Wha…?" He mumbled hoarsely, eyes puffy and flushed from sleep, his hair horribly messy. I wasn't wasting time, I had to stretch. My ass was so numb, I wouldn't have been able to find it if I needed to right then. My back gave several loud cracks that made some of the pain go away but there was plenty left. Sasuke cleared his voice before he spoke again, but it came out just as rough. "What time is it?"

"I don't know. It was midnight about a movie ago."

We were alone. Obito had offered to wake Sasuke up, saying I must be uncomfortable. I was beyond uncomfortable, not moving around became agony long before Obito spoke, but I didn't let him. After that, they all left to their respective rooms.

"That's…" Sasuke said, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. He retreated back, kneeling up on the couch. My legs were still spread, so there was some contact between us. "That's almost six hours."

"Yeah."

And I felt every minute of them in every bone I had in my body. I stretched again, letting my back bend over the edge of the armrest, arms high above my head. It felt absolutely brilliant, an instant heaven. I grinned up at Sasuke, who had a very unattractive open-mouthed expression on his face. Okay, I'm lying. He was hot as fuck, despite everything. "You sleep like a log."

Sasuke shook his head, more disbelief than denial.

"Really." I assured him. "Like a table leg. You weren't moving at all, I had to ask for a mirror to check if you're still…"

_Breathing_, the ending was. I never managed to finish. The word came out as nothing but deep startled inhalation as Sasuke moved in that endlessly smooth way of his, leaned back in, over me, supporting himself on his arms on both sides of my head. Even unprepared for it, I let him kiss me on instinct, without a thought. And if that unapologetic way he dug his fingers into the back of my neck, forcing me out of shock to respond properly was his way of showing gratitude, I'd let him sleep on me every day.

The fierceness somewhat softened once I responded. Sasuke straddled me, only to break the kiss, and said, "You stink."

I automatically hit his shoulder, not too lightly, and shot back. "Your breath is horrible."

"And I'm not much better." Sasuke continued, ignoring my input completely, and pushed himself up to stand. "Upstairs is probably a better place for this, anyway."

Well he had a point there, so I took the hand he offered to help me up. Upstairs had a bathroom. It also had two free rooms, both with a rather large bed in it.

Sasuke didn't let go as soon as I was up. He was still holding my hand – maybe a little bit too tightly – before his eyes met mine, light mirth and some confusion on his face. "He's gone."

Even distracted as I was, it only took a moment to realize he was talking about the ghost. Maybe it meant something, maybe not, but I gave him a really happy grin and yanked him to follow me out of the living room.


	4. Chapter 4

Part 4

**Method in His Madness**

_At last awake_

_From life, that insane dream we take_

_For waking now_**.**

'Easter-Day' (1850) l. 479

I gathered all the things I needed for a shower up in my room. I really needed one after so many hours of sweating as I sat, unable to move. As the better organized one, Sasuke collected what he needed faster. I heard him when the door of his room opened and closed and, a couple of seconds later, I heard him enter the bathroom.

There was no hurry, my mind was still hazy and disbelieving and my body kinda stiff, so I did a couple of squats, trying to shake it all off. I didn't like that Sasuke was alone, now more then ever. There was no telling what was he planning to do after what happened that night, but I knew what I was planning to do. I wouldn't leave him, not even to sleep alone.

I smiled as the door of the bathroom opened again and picked up my things quickly. It wasn't just so I'd catch Sasuke walking out all wet and fresh, I really wanted a shower. But the hallway was empty.

I thought of how weird that was. I'm pretty sure I heard the door open. Was it possible he was in his room already? But wouldn't I hear his bedroom door, too? Goosebumps crawled up my arms, and it wasn't from the cold. Maybe I'd ignore doors opening on their own another time but not when I was starting to believe the place was haunted.

I didn't want to barge into the bathroom uninvited and compromise whatever little ground Sasuke and I found ourselves sharing, so I quietly walked to the door and listened. I could hear voices inside and the water running. It couldn't be whispering because I wouldn't be able to hear that at all. I couldn't be sure to whom the voices belonged.

Should I knock? Call? But what if Sasuke was already in his room and it was someone else inside? I didn't really want to barge in on Orochimaru in pink negligee, talking to himself in the mirror, even if that would scare him half way to death. Then again, Orochimaru was in the other part of the house and there was another bathroom there. What would he be doing here?

Something banged inside and I panicked: what if Sasuke wasn't too young after all? There was no thinking after that, I opened the door and pushed inside the bathroom. It was blindingly white, or was the hallway so dimly lit, and the sudden change startled me. Sasuke was standing with his back to the sink. He glanced at me as I stormed in but it was only for a second before he turned his wide, confused eyes back at the man standing in front of him…

_Itachi? _What was he doing, why wasn't he turning to look back, why was he even here?

"Itachi?" I finally asked hesitantly when no one else spoke.

There was no answer and Sasuke moved a little bit to the side, as if he was trying to move without disrupting his brother. His eyes were still fixed right in front of him. I blinked and recognized fear.

Two careful steps into the room later, I was close enough to see Itachi's profile. He had his eyes shut and his forehead was wrinkled and sweaty, like he was in a lot of pain. I stepped forward to him, meaning to ask what was wrong, if I could I help him, but then Sasuke's annoyingly slow movement burst as he almost jumped to grab my reaching hand.

"Don't, something's wrong…"

He had started saying, but then Itachi opened his eyes and he moved too. Sasuke's hand was violently ripped away from my wrist as Itachi stood between us, facing his brother.

"Don't let him touch you." Itachi said, in an odd, shaky voice, titling his head just a little so I would know he was talking to _me_. "You have to go - you have to go before he burns you."

"What?" I asked, utterly confused. "Burns me - _what_?"

Itachi stepped back, forcing me to retreat a little and Sasuke leaned back on the wall. I was talking to Itachi, but my eyes were staring next to the wall where Sasuke stood with his hair wet and a towel around him, looking like he couldn't decide if he should scream or slide down the wall.

"Just trust me. " Itachi told me again, but I couldn't. I didn't understand anything.

"Okay." I forced out somehow. "Okay. But he's trapped in the bathroom. He can't do anything. Can't we – call someone?"

There was no answer. No one moved. I kept looking at Sasuke, at his face and, ghosts or not, insanity or not, there was no way I would believe he would hurt me, much less _burn_ me. Not one single muscle moved on Itachi. He seemed determined to stand between me and his brother. He seemed determined to protect me.

I said to calm him down. "Orochimaru is here. He surely has some drugs on him. We can put Sasuke to sleep if he's that dangerous."

Itachi straightened a little. I almost sighed in relief. But when he moved, he also raised his right hand and I finally saw what Sasuke was so afraid of what was he staring at and backing up from. Itachi was holding a knife.

"I have to take care of this, there's no one else."

I was too stunned to think, to process what he said, but when Itachi lunged in, I moved on some reflex and pushed him, as hard as I could, to the side. Fortunately, Sasuke didn't waste time. He was in the middle of the room, almost next to me, when I spun around.

Itachi didn't fall down, he just crashed into the sink. When he turned to face us, I stepped back thinking. His face, his eyes, that blank look he was giving to the wall before, was now directed at us, the both of us. It was like – like he wasn't there anymore. Like Itachi's body was a puppet doll, being moved around by someone who wasn't in there.

My mouth felt jammed as I retreated another step and bumped into Sasuke's shoulder. His skin was very cold, from the shower and fear as his brother reinforced the grip he had on the knife. No one was moving so I opened my moth to say something. Anything to say…

"Kakashi!" My voice was too loud, so loud Itachi halted and blinked, but it felt better than anything else in the world, so I screamed again. "Kakashi!"

That was all I had the time to do, before the knife glittered high above out heads. I didn't notice when Sasuke put his hand on my shoulder, but when he pushed me away from him, it was with so much force, I stumbled and fell on the side. Itachi ignored me, completely focused on his brother again. From the floor, the only thing I could do was mime what Sasuke did to me first time we had a fight; I arranged my weight quickly and kicked Itachi in his knee, using my heel.

Because of the adrenalin, fear, I used enough force to feel and hear the bone breaking. It was too loud, horrible and for a moment, I wanted to puke. Itachi was falling down in such irrational silence, like watching a slow motion scene without the music on the background. His face was blank, eyes open wide, and I couldn't do anything but stare at him.

Sasuke tugged at my sleeve. "Come on, get up, we have to go…"

I let him help me up but my gaze still on Itachi, who frowned and reacted on Sasuke's words. I was being as good as dragged backwards, and I still couldn't take my eyes off Itachi's; not now when his dark, empty eyes were looking right at me. It almost felt as if he was trying to force some of his emptiness into me…

I shuddered violently, all the fright caught up with me, as Sasuke shut the door behind us. I was barely aware we were already in the hall, I only snapped out when Sasuke turned to me.

"You okay?" The knob under Sasuke's hand turned and when he failed to open the door, Itachi banged at them from the other side. I didn't even manage to answer when steps echoed behind us, up the stairs and turning around the corner.

"Naruto? Naruto, what happened?"

That was Obito and, even though he was talking to me, he was walking around to reach Sasuke.

"He tried to kill us." I said, every word scratching my throat sore from the screaming. Maybe only when I said it, it dawned on me. No, Itachi wasn't trying to kill _us_, he was trying to kill Sasuke. He was trying to stab his brother.

"He tried to kill _me_." Sasuke echoed my thoughts. "He had a knife, he wanted to carve out my eyes…"

Itachi finally remembered that the door opened from his side and he yanked it towards him. Sasuke seemed to be expecting it. He stumbled a little anyway, but Obito helped him by grabbing the knob. He still looked confused and lost, the gesture was clearly automatic.

"Naruto?" I felt Kakashi's hands trying to turn me to face him. I couldn't, I couldn't stop looking at the door. Itachi was still trying to yank them open. "Who is in there? Who attacked you?"

"What?" I answered unhelpfully, so Kakashi used more force to turn me to himself. I blinked and looked at his worried face, at Orochimaru standing behind me, and I got angry. How did we get this all so wrong? I saw it, didn't I? I saw Itachi acting weirdly, but I never bothered to think about it seriously. Was he planning something like this weeks ago, when I found him lurking outside of Sasuke's room? "What the fuck do you think? You were trying to lock up the wrong fucking brother!"

Kakashi glanced around him, as if he was surprised that Itachi wasn't somewhere next to him. Orichimaru retreated further behind him. I didn't care, so I didn't say anything.

"That's Itachi?" Obito asked shakily. In response, the door banged, but Itachi was still quiet in the bathroom.

"Yeah." Sasuke answered his uncle. "I was showering and he walked inside and started talking nonsense. He had a knife. Said he had to cut my eyes out."

"_What_?"

Obito was really shaken up, but he was still holding the doorknob.

"Naruto?" Kakashi asked, squeezing my hand.

"Yeah, yeah." I told him, guessing right he wanted confirmation from someone he believed more. "I was waiting for my turn in the bathroom, and I heard the door open so I…" I shock me head to myself – they don't need every detail, I can tell them later. "He had a knife, and he was attacking Sasuke. He could've hurt me but he didn't want to, he was warning me off – and he was trying to kill Sasuke."

Not very eloquent but Kakashi nodded. "You two, go down to our room. We'll take care of this."

He was talking to Sasuke, too. But Sasuke was now staring at the doorknob, much like I was staring at Itachi before and not moving. He was shaking in his towel, it was really late and very cold in the old house. I didn't wait to be told twice, I didn't want to see Itachi's eyes ever again.

"Come on." I said when Sasuke didn't move even after I took his forearm and pulled. "You need to dress – they'll take care of it."

Sasuke forced his arm out of my grip, and threw me a glare, but he moved. I followed him down the stairs, all the way to Kakashi's and Obito's room and watched him dress into his uncles cloths that were too big and too bright for him. Sasuke wasn't complaining.

Neither of us talked as we listened to the noise upstairs, wondering what was going on. I knew Kakashi could handle it, but I was still worried. Itachi was clearly out of his head, completely crazy. That look… and that _knife_. He was trying to kill his brother. Why? Becaue he though Sasuke was crazy? What a fucked up family.

At some point while I was pacing the room, Sasuke found his way under the covers. It was rather cold, so I closed the window and went to bed myself. There wasn't a whole lot of space, but Sasuke was lying at one end, clearly leaving me a side, so I crawled under, dirty cloths and all, without asking for permission.

Sasuke sniffed. "You stink."

"I saved your life." I snapped at him, gathering a blanket around me. "I can stink all I want."

Sasuke didn't answer, and so we watched the ceiling and waited for some news. The sounds the others were making upstairs were too low to make out what was going on.

"You didn't save my life." Sasuke said after a minute. When I looked at him, he was staring in the ceiling, expressionless. "He wouldn't have hurt me."

I thought about Itachi's eyes, blank and dark. About the knife in his hand. Sasuke was in denial. There was no way he could have gotten out of that bathroom on his own without al least being severely hurt.

"Right." I answered, not wanting to point that out. Itachi was his brother. I was angry and scared but being attacked by your own brother was much worse. "Well I'm not leaving you here alone, even if I have to go to the bathroom."

Sasuke tore his eyes from the ceiling to look back at me, a small frown between his brows. "I didn't say I wanted you to go."

"No, you told me I stink." I snapped.

Under the blanket, Sasuke turned to face me, putting his cheek under his gathered hands. "Just because my brother… I didn't forget _why_ you stink."

He closed his eyes before he finished the sentence. I couldn't find anything to answer, so we stayed like that laying next to each other in the silence until Kakashi came in some minutes later.

"Sleeping?" He asked opening the door. His clear loud voice would have woken us up if we were sleeping.

"Is he okay? You didn't hurt him, did you?" Sasuke asked, sitting up in the bed already. "I didn't know what happened, but I'm sure he didn't mean it…"

Kakashi raised a hand to stop him. "He wasn't even resisting when confronted him. Orochimaru gave him something and he is asleep upstairs in his room, locked up. There's nothing to worry about."

I let my head fall down at the pillow, in relief. That was good to hear.

But it wasn't enough for Sasuke. "And what now? What will you do now?"

"You will talk to your uncle in the morning about that. Get some sleep now; I just wanted to make sure you are okay."

"Fine." I told him through a yawn. Damn, but cradling someone and then fighting against an armed man in a bathroom surely knew how to exhaust people. "You know what would make it even more fine? Cocoa."

Kakashi quietly snickered and closed the door. I think both Sasuke and me were asleep before he came back, but in the morning, there were two mugs of cold cocoa on a tray next to my side of the bed. It made me smile and determined to start the last day of visiting the Uchiha country house as pleasantly as possible, given the circumstance.

***

They packed Itachi in a car, so drugged they had to help him get to into the backseat, and took him away. Kakashi wanted to stay, but that just wasn't going to happen. Obito was going out of his head, completely freaking out, poor guy. Orochimaru, thank God, left with them. So it was just Sasuke and me, staying alone in the house. We only had one car. There was no way we would all fit. So the deal, that Kakashi would come the next day to pick us up, was the best we could come up with on such short notice.

I had to keep an eye on Sasuke in the meantime.

I wasn't afraid. I mean, I've been living with Sasuke in the same house for so long already. He had never given me the uneasy feeling Itachi was. I wasn't afraid of him, but I was afraid _for_ him. He hadn't been well for so long and maybe dealing with what happened the previous night could just be the one straw that broke the camel's back

He looked at the blank walls for far too long now when no one but me was around. He just sat and stared, no longer into space, a book or his own knees, but into the walls. He must have been seeing something there again. Or was expecting to start seeing something again. I tried asking, but he just shook his head in a manner that left me with doubt if the gesture was refusal to answer, or the answer itself.

His words kept haunting me. _He has no eyes…_ The ghost had no eyes, how can you watch something with bleeding holes instead of eyes for so long, and remain so stoic? I would never be able to do that. I'd go insane. I think that the only way you could get away with your sanity intact would be if you were already crazy.

The change made me wary. Sasuke openly flinched when I dropped my fork at breakfast, which was something I've never seen him do before. He was so careful with Itachi and Obito around. It felt as if I was only then seeing the real Sasuke; he rubbed his eyes often, which made them even redder, and he slouched, like a guilty person, all the time now.

The day was rainy. It wasn't hard, just drizzling constantly, the sky cloudy and the wind loud in the trees. I had been sleepy all day but I wanted to stay awake and keep an eye on Sasuke. More and more often, he'd turn from the wall to watch me back out of the corner of his eye, deep frown on his face but silent. I thought it was better, but it made me a little uneasy. Maybe the ghost changed the spot? Maybe it was behind me now?

But no, that wasn't it. Sasuke was looking at _me_ and somehow, that wasn't making me feel any better.

We weren't talking. I wasn't feeling like it. Sasuke obviously wasn't feeling like it, either. The day was long and filled out with nothing but rain, silence and heavy thoughts.

When the evening came, I realized I was a little afraid of Sasuke. Not just freaked out of the ghost thing and the empty house, but not willing to go near him at all. For the first time, I realized the redness of his eyes was more visible at electrical light. When I was near him, at the table or in the living room, or wherever, I could see every little single red line in his eyes, they were even purple and violet on the edges. After noticing that, I did my best not to be too near.

And there was something else lurking around my mind. How did I know he wasn't the one who attacked Itachi? After all, I got there late. Maybe Itachi took the knife from him. He was warning me, wasn't he? So okay, he wasn't very lucid about it, but if he was attacked… I just had no way to be sure, and I was alone with the guy in the house. It was scaring me.

Around ten in the evening, I couldn't take it anymore. I started walking around the house, just to be away from Sasuke. I'd start climbing the stair, my favorite part, go down to the part of the house where Orochimaru stayed, walk by Itachi's room and then to the hallway Sasuke's and mine room were in, down the stairs into the kitchen, carefully not going into the living room where Sasuke was and then repeat all that again. It was keeping me alert, I was thinking. If Sasuke snapped on me, I'd be ready.

On the seventeenth or maybe the eighteenth walk, I saw the knife laying in the kitchen and I took it. Better me to have it, than he, right? Who knew what Sasuke would do with it if he found it.

I was somewhere half way up the stairs when I heard steps behind. Not even thinking about it, I ran back down and saw Sasuke at the door.

"Where are you going?"

He turned back, the deer caught in the headlines look on his face. Maybe some fear, too. It looked like he was realizing I was onto him and was running away. He didn't even answer me, he just ran out. I followed him to the door and stopped. I was worried about him but I was mostly happy for the moment that he was out of the house. I mean, if he was out, then I wasn't in danger.

I stood at the door and looked into the darkness. I couldn't see which way Sasuke went. It was raining harder by then; everything was really dark and wet. The wind was crashing into the windows of the house, making shattering noise; it was crashing against my face too, so I closed and locked the door and had dinner.

I fried some sausages. There were good, too. But with a forkful of goodness half way to my mouth, a thought occured to me. The village was not very far. I doubted Sasuke went there, among too many people – he was such a loner, after all, but maybe some unfortunate soul was out there, lost in the dark.

He could hurt someone. And it would be my fault, because I was so eager to get rid of him. I let him go. I should have stopped him. If something happened to anyone, it would be on me alone, because Sasuke clearly wasn't responsible for his actions.

I had no choice. There was no one else, after all. We were only ones there. Sasuke was too much of a danger, and I had to take care of him. Wasn't that what his brother would do? Stop him before he became responsible for someone's death, before he smeared his hands with blood. Better me than him, right?

I took the knife and walked out. The wind, so cold, so strong, it was messing with my steps, it was messing with the little very vision the dark and the rain were leaving me. I had to be careful, but I had to hurry as well. Sasuke had a head start. I had to catch up.

My steps were heavy, but I was getting through as fast as I could. I looked into every angle of the yard I could think of, under the table, behind the fence. Once my eyes got used to the dark, it wasn't that bad. Sasuke was not there. He was somewhere further away.

Next to the river, maybe? He was always there before. It was worth checking out.

Sasuke wasn't there. He also wasn't near that tree on the edge of the field of clover, either. I walked a long time around the meadows and around the trees, avoiding the branches that were bent by wind to snap back in my face. I couldn't find him anywhere.

Maybe he was crazy enough to go to the village, after all. I had to find him. But I went out without a jacket and I was wet. It was probably better to go back to the house first and change, and then try the village.

The lights seemed the same to me when I went through the little gate. There was no was of telling if Sasuke was in the house or not. But he ran out, why would he be back? Especially if no one was there.

I was careful when I walked in. Something moved toward the kitchen, so I yanked the knife out and stepped closer. It was already too late, when I looked back on the noise behind me, it was only to see a shovel landing on my head. I had only enough time to think: _I was right to be afraid_.

***

_The sheriff was around again. I wanted to tell him, I really did. But he wouldn't have believed me, just like Mother didn't when she was alive. No one wants to believe that the child, innocent little Izuna, is capable of such things. I don't understand it. How can't they see it? How can't they feel it? _

_I could feel it, I could always feel it. I loved my little brother when he was a baby. But later, he started scaring me. His eyes started getting red, we all saw that. Almost every time he was sent out to take care of cattle or was playing with the dogs, he had red eyes by dark. That couldn't be normal. Both of my parents knew it wasn't, that was why they were always worried. But I know the truth. I am the only one willing to admit that there is something horrible wrong with my brother, something dark and insane, hiding just underneath his happy smiles and too bright eyes. He could snap every second, and even though I know it and I'm being very careful, others don't. One of these days, the sheriff might come to out house never to go back._

_There is no one but me. We are alone for so long already, I am he one who feeds us, takes care of the things. I am the one who found a way to keep us under a safe roof out house when the local authority had sent some people to take us to the orphanage. So I have to be the one to deal with this, too. _

_I've been staling for too long. I can't take it anymore. I can't sleep at nights, thinking about how he pretends to smile at me in gratitude, about his red eyes. It's like he's been somewhere very hot, like he's holding the fires of hell in his eyes. It is just a matter of time when he will stop trying to fool me and try to drag me to that hot and red place with him._

_I had to take care of my little brother. There was no one else, no one else understood. And I will have to take care of it now. _

_ I have to prepare things. I have to dig a hole in our basement first._

***

"Naruto?"

I opened my eyes to see him leaning over me. His eyes were so horrible up close, red and dry. And that flat expression, not a flicker of emotion in them. Only a fiend could be so blank.

I had to make sure he doesn't hurt anyone. But when I tried to move, I couldn't. I was tied to a chair, so tightly, just trying to move carefully was painful.

"What are you think you're doing?" I demanded, angry. He tricked me. After all the planning, after all the careful thinking after all these years of knowing exactly what he was, he tricked me. Knowing about it wasn't very helpful against evil.

"You scared me." He straightened up. I saw my knife past him on the table.

"I scared you? I would never hurt anyone." I said. I let out the part where I _had_ to hurt him. I had to stop him. It wasn't as if I liked it. It was just something I had to do.

He put his hands in his pockets. "Well, I hated how you were looking at me the entire afternoon."

"I'm just trying to take care of you." I told him. That part was true, after all. "Who else is there?"

"I don't need you to take care of me." He snapped angrily, showing with that flash in his red eyes just how much he did need someone. It made my skin crawl, the fire in his eyes. What if he wasn't just evil? What if he was… a devil? What if he could burn me somehow just by looking at me?

"But I have to." I tried to reason with him. "Now when mother is dead, there is no one else. Not that she knew about you."

He frowned. "My mother died when I was little. So did yours."

_That doesn't matter_.

I nodded my head. "And it's just you and me now. Untie me, please?"

He shook his head, still frowning. I hated it. I was afraid. He had me at his mercy. What would he do? What if killing me wasn't the only thing he had in mind? What if he decided to do much worse? How could I be so stupid and let him outdo me?

"No. I don't like it how you look at me. It reminds me of how Itachi was looking at me last night."

Who?

_That doesn't matter. He's danger. You must take care of it_.

"I was keeping an eye on you, that's all." I said. "I'm older, I have to take care of you."

He opened his mouth, but nothing came for a moment. On the second try, what came out was a quiet, almost awed, "You think you're my brother."

A tiny flame of hope flickered in me. Maybe he forgot who I was. Maybe he won't hurt me now when he remembered.

"I'm not sure if I like it that you almost forgot who I am." I told him, managing a real smile.

He shook his head again, letting his wet hair fall into his eyes. "You are not my brother, okay? Naruto? Do you even know who you are? Or who I am?"

The smile slipped off my face again. He was just fucking up with my mind, the little devil. Playing on my emotions. Well, it worked once, but it won't work twice, I was sure of that.

"That is just not nice. I'm the only family you have, and you should have proper respect for me! Untie me this moment, or I will lock you up for a week!"

"You are not my fucking brother!" He seemed really upset. I knew better. And I was tired of playing. "He went back to the city this morning and he would never try to lock me up!"

"That would be enough, Izuna! This has to stop. I always knew you are no good, but this is unacceptable. I have to take care of you. You have no one else. Let me go right now!"

He wasn't moving though. Nothing was working. Damn it!

"What did you call me?"

"What?"

"My name, what did you call me?"

He was playing with me head again. If I was any weaker, I would have thought that he honestly forgot his own name. No harm in telling him, I guess.

"I called you by your name. Izuna. Did you forget it?"

He was shaking his head again, but there was no vocal answer. He asked instead, "What's your name?"

Again, no harm in telling him. He might let me out, if I make him trust me. "Madara, of course. You really don't remember me? I'm your brother."

I used the gentlest voice I had, but all he said before practically running out was. "Shit. Fuck."

"Watch your language!" I yelled after him, automatically. He didn't answer.

I had no idea where he went. I couldn't see or hear anything. But when he came back, he had an open box with him, full of papers. He seemed excited, all flushed. It was probably something bad. His evil plans, instructions he was getting from someone? I narrowed my eyes.

"This is all the documentation left from my grandfather." He said. I had no idea what was he talking about, but it was without a doubt something to confuse me. "Official papers, letters, things like that. I went through them once or twice when I was younger."

He was babbling, and mostly to himself, not me, so I didn't say anything.

"I knew that name was familiar… Izuna. Izuna Uchiha. That was my grandfather's little brother. He disappeared without trace when he was a boy." He made a face. "I remember my grandfather telling stories about how long and how hard he was looking for his brother. I can't believe it. You were right, I'm not crazy at all."

He smiled at me. I looked for the evilness in it, but I couldn't find it. He was such a good actor.

"And neither is Itachi. And neither are you. This fucking house is haunted."

I had no idea at all what was he talking about.

"Alright." I said, trying to take advantage of his good mood. "Untie me and we can talk about it."

He took out something from the box, ignoring my offer and let me see it. It was a photograph.

"Is this you?" I nodded. He pulled out a small weird mirror so I can see my face. "Well, this is how you look like now."

It wasn't me at all what I saw, but the blond hair, blue eyes with even bluer circles around them… It looked kind of familiar. I took my eyes off the face. It was some kind of trick.

"You are trying to trick me." I accused.

"Your name is Naruto. You live with your godfather, Kakashi, who is dating my uncle – who was, by the way, I think, also a victim like me once, when my father tried to kill him and ended up in mental hospital."

"You are trying to confuse me." I told him, but the truth was, he already managed to confuse me. A tall man with a lot of gray hair danced just on the side of my vision.

"You have an annoyingly persistent protective side and you slurp your soup. But you're not a bad kisser."

"Oh," I groaned. "That's just sick and horrible."

Something in me wasn't agreeing with that statement. Yeah, kissing your brother was horrible, but kissing _him_, kissing _Sasuke_… That wasn't horrible at all.

"Yeah, I know." He said. "I literally have to wait until you're done with your soup to be able to eat mine. We'll have to do something about it."

He was smiling and it made me happy. I didn't see him smiling like that, so relived, so happy. Why was I afraid of him? No one who smiled like that couldn't hurt anyone?

_But what if he is just trying to trick you…?_ I couldn't finish the thought, because Sasuke put his palms on my cheeks and kissed me, hard, on the mouth. Seeing that smile so close left me with no choice but to smile back.

"I'm an amazing kisser, as I'm sure you can tell." I told him when he let me inhale properly. "I think you hit me too hard, I was dreaming I was planning to bury someone in the basement."

"Actually, I believe you are possessed." Sasuke said, looking at me carefully. "Or you were."

That had me speechless for a moment. "W-what?"

"I think my grandfather was crazy, and he believed his little brother was evil. He killed the kid, buried him – where did you say, in the basement? – and now they are both haunting this place. But the kid was not trying to hurt anyone, though you were right. He wanted something. He was trying to warn me I was in danger."

I wasn't sure I was following. But Sasuke looked so sure, so relived. So I said: "Okay."

"When I was younger, when my mom died, we came here for a couple of months, Itachi, father, uncle and me. The day before we had to leave, my father, after many weeks of weird behavior, attacked my uncle with a knife. Itachi was big enough to help, and my father died two years later, in the mental hospital. The doctors proclaimed him cured long before that, but he insisted on staying, so he would not endanger anyone. He wasn't crazy, though. He was possessed by his father's ghost."

"His father wanted him to kill his little brother, like he did?"

I was staring to get it. It seems like Sasuke's grandfather wasn't happy with killing his brother. His own son also had allergies… But he never did anything about that on his own. Maybe the doctors told him about it, so he knew it wasn't some evil manifestation. He couldn't kill his own son when he knew that the kid was just sensitive on animal hair.

But he couldn't let go of it, not really. Maybe it was guilt that made him come haunt the house. Maybe he was wandering the hallways, reliving what he did so many times until he lost what was left of his mind, until he forgot everything but that moment of his life when he killed his brother. Then, one day, someone appeared. Someone with red eyes to scare him anew.

And maybe I had a wild imagination.

Sasuke was saying, "Yeah. He seemed to be reliving what he did through his son and later through Itachi – and you." He frowned. "I don't get that part. Why you?"

I offered the obvious answer, "Because no one else was here?"

"I guess."

I thought back on the dream I had, on the feelings behind it. Things that were going through my head were not very clear, but the emotions were strong.

"It's not about blood relation, it's about the responsibility." I said. Sasuke was still frowning. "He didn't kill his brother because there was sign in the sky tell him to do it, he killed his brother because he believed the kid was evil and will snap every second and do something horrible."

"But he wasn't." Sasuke told me, slowly.

"I know that." I rolled my eyes, feeling ridiculous in doing that still tied up to a chair. "But it was what your grandfather believed. And after they were left alone, it was his responsibility. He was the one who had to take care of his little brother. He was the one whose fault would have been if the kid snapped and did something horrible."

"Which he wouldn't have." Sasuke snapped. I had to roll my eyes again.

"I know, Sasuke. I'm not defending him. He was obviously completely crazy." When Sasuke's dark eyes stopped flashing, or at least softened a little, I continued. "The point is, he was feeling responsible. And I was feeling responsible for you, because you weren't well and we were left alone. Like Itachi was feeling responsible for you when you were seeing things."

Or at least, that is how I thought things must have happened. Sasuke had a reaction on the kitten I put into his room, his ghost thought he was in danger because of it with his older brother also haunting the place, so he started showing. Maybe Sasuke was the only one who could see him with a reason, after all. But instead of researching about it, Sasuke thought he was going crazy. Itachi worried which made Madara relate to him and use him to try to get rid of the "evil.".

I was willing to bet something very similar happened to Obito and Sasuke's father.

"I wasn't. It was a real ghost." Sasuke said, with much more satisfaction then the statement deserved it. Ghosts were still creepy, even if that particular one was trying to help him. If anything, knowing they had methods and reasons made me even more scared.

Not sure if he realized it, I said, "It was because of the allergies."

"What?"

"That is what gave your grandfather the idea his little brother was some kind of devil. He was getting red eyes every time he played with dogs, of taking care of the cattle. I don't think they had any idea the kid was allergic."

Sasuke raised his hand to rub his eyes while I was talking, as if trying to rub the redness and the reason he was in danger out of them.

"Thinking back," He said after a moment, "I saw the ghost for the first time that night after you let that cat into my room."

"Um." I said, really, truly sorry. Looking back, I was the one responsible for everything bad that happened that summer. "I'm really, truly sorry about that."

"Well, we have to get out of the house." Sasuke said, and stood up from where he was kneeling in front of me. He took the knife from the table. I didn't like it.

"But – what if it takes over again?"

Sasuke was already cutting the duct tape. "I have the knife. You are clumsy."

"I am not!" I said indigently, amazed with how he can find the way to completely insult me while making it sound like a reassurance.

"And besides, you don't have that empty look in your eyes any longer. That might have not been as obvious on Itachi, but it was very disturbing on you."

I felt around a little. He hadn't sparing any strength when he tied me up. My wrists hurt and the skin where the tape was fastened burned.

Thinking about what exactly he meant, I told him. "It was obvious on him, too. I saw it. I was just too busy thinking about you to pay it proper attention." I muttered the last part. If only I didn't, if I said something to Kakashi…

Sasuke took my hand to yank me out of the chair. "We'll just go out, okay? No holding back. We'll wait for Kakashi in the village."

I agreed and we walked right through the door. It wan't raining too hard outside but we picked up our jackets from the hood behind the door anyways. It was cold. I was still wet from earlier. Watching over the fields swallowed by thick blackness, I shuddered. I had wandered through them, through that darkness all alone without even noticing that I was wet. I had been looking for Sasuke. I had been trying to find him so I could stop him from doing horrible things to the villagers, I had been trying to kill him. With a knife.

Sasuke crossed a deep mud first and turned to make sure I won't have problem. He wasn't upset with me, though he had the right to be. Maybe it wasn't exactly me who was trying to kill him. But I know who he was then. I knew who he was, I remembered him sleeping on my shoulder and how determent he was not to end up like his father, and I was still trying to kill him.

When we reached the mostly even road that led to town, we walked side by side, both deep in thought.

I don't know what Sasuke was thinking about but I was fighting the guilt. I couldn't make up my mind about if it was my fault or not, and I was too tired to think about it properly, so I tried thinking about something else. I didn't quite make it.

They better take out that corpse, if it was still in the basement. That poor boy, killed like that, while his crazy brother got married and later had kids. Had grandkids, told them stories. It was just awful.

When the rare lights from the town were close, the last of the daze was wearing off. I felt relief, quickly followed by anger.

I was used, that ghost used me. It violated me. I couldn't believe the shit I was thinking and feeling. How could I believe all that crap? Looking back, it had no sense. But it was so logical then, so normal. I think I got a snapshot of how craziness looked like. I was, for that one day, crazy. I was slipping deeper and deeper. Where it took Madara Uchiha years, and Itachi months, I took me only one day to get. Was I that weak? Or was Madara's ghost getting desperate because Sasuke was leaving the next day, probably never to come back?

I guess I will never know.

The bus station was empty and cold, even inside. When the dawn came, Sasuke and I were napping in turns uncomfortably, leaning on each other on a bench. It was warmer that way. I held my arm around him when it was his turn, trying to used the free corner of my jacket to make him more comfortable and thinking about what can I do to make up for what I tried to do to him.

I came up with nothing, but thinking about the redemption made waiting for Kakashi while listening Sasuke's restless mumbling bearable. I settled on the hope that I will manage to find a way when I was rested and far, far away from the Uchiha county house.

End

* * *

A/N: Aaand, it seems like I can't finish a story without leaving it somewhat open, with space for extras and sequels. That's not very likely to happen, but I still… Heh. XD

I'm sorry I couldn't post it the way I promised, one chapter a week. Next time I try to finish first and post later, I will also have it beta'd before I start posting.

To all of you who came this far – thank you very much for reading and I hope you enjoyed this story!


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